Class _tJ7q Rnnk .67-5 QwrightJl? COBSIGHT DEPOSrr. 3 y^^ i I W^'' THE EXPANSION OF THE \.MEEICAN PEOPLE SOCIAL AND TEERITORIAL BY / EDWIN ERLE SPARKS, Ph.D. ASSISTANT PKOKKSSUK UF AMKKICAN HISTORY, THE UNIVKRSITY OF CHICAGO CHICAGO SCOTT, FORESMAN AND COMPANY 1900 82379 Library of Conqresa Iwo Copies Received NOV 30 1900 Copyright entry SECOND COPY Oe)iv«red to ORDErt DIVISION DEC 13 isao M ^ COPYRIGHT. 1900, BY SCOTT, FORESMAN AND COMPANY PRHSS OF THK HKNKV O. SHHPARU CO. CHICAGO. TO KATHARINE MV FAITHFUL AMANUENSIS l^XDKR PKRMAXKXT KX«A(tKMKXT) CONTENTS Chattkr Paoe Introduction 9 i. prepara.tion of europe in the fifteenth cen- TURY FOR Expansion IT II. Spain in the Western Expansion ... 25 III. Alien Peoples in the English Colonies . . 36 IV. Life in the English Colonies in America . 48 V. Life in the English Colonies in America — (Con- tinued) 60 VI. The French-English Struggle for the Missis- sippi Valley 69 VII. National Boundaries and the Public Domain . 78 VIII. The Beginnings of Kentucky and Tennessee . 88 IX. The Beginnings of Kentucky and Tennessee— (Continued) 98 X. Organization of the System of Public Lands 104 XI. The Peopling of the Northwest Territory . 118 XII. Journeying to the Ohio Country . . . 13.") XIII. Pioneer Life in the Ohio Valley . . . 149 XIV. Evidences of the Higher Life of the People 159 XV. The National Seat of Government . . .175 XVI. The Pressure on the Southwestern Boundary Line 188 XVII. Taking Official Possession of the New Ter- ritory 200 XVIII. Rounding out the Gulf Possessions . . 211 XIX. Assimilation of the Frontier French Element 220 XX. The Evolution of the American Frontier . 238 XXI. Communication and the Expansion of the Fed- eral Union 249 7 CONTENTS XXII. The Cumberland National Road and the Erie Canal 259 XXIII. Steamboats and Railroads in the Middle West 270 XXIV. The Middle Period of Intellectual Growth 290 XXV. The Oregon Expansion 301 XXVI. The Acquisition of Texas 310 XXVII. The Conquest of Upper California . . 324 XXVIII. Gold, the New Factor in American Expansion 33G XXIX. The Struggle for Kansas and Nebraska . 351 XXX. A Transcontinental Railroad . . . .306 XXXI. Seeking Utopia in America .... 376 XXXII. Seeking Utopia in America— (Continued) . 389 XXXIII. American Reforms and Reformers . . 402 XXXIV. Increase of Well-Being Among the People . 419 XXXV. The Beginnings of a Colonial System . 429 XXXVI. Sudden Expansion of the Colonial System . 439 Index 451 INTRODUCTION Expansion is a necessary law of human develop- ment and progress. It must be assumed in the common explanations of man's creation. If mankind originated from one species or in one place, there must have been dissemination, growth, and expan- sion. The earliest glimpses show activity, change, and migration. This expansion would naturally extend in concentric circles or equally diverging lines from the common place of origin if surrounding con- ditions were the same. But even the primary divi- sion of the globe into land and water is a disturbing factor in this outward movement. A body of migrants, for instance, meeting the ocean or what is to them an impassable sea, is diverted into a new line of travel, or further progress is barred until necessity, aided by constant contact with the water, has persuaded them to venture on its trackless waste. In the same way mountains may change direction of migration, or a lofty chain compel a halt of decades until passes are discovered or roads constructed. Wanderers may chance upon a particularly fertile valley where nature suiDplies their wants in return for a minimum expenditure of labor. Agriculture arises and supplements or replaces the earlier occupation of herding. Another group may by some accident learn 10 INTRODUCTION ta simple use of the mineral treasures hidden in mother earth and a rude development of arts and manufacture arises. Flint for arrowheads, jasper for axes, or native copper for sheathing may make a per- manent residence of what was but a' temporary halt- ing place. Climate must also be reckoned among these deter- mining causes. An attractive hillside in the early year becomes a bleak and barren spot in autumn ; a valley enchanting in the rigors of winter becomes unendurable in the heat of summer. Springs and brooks, affording water and food at one season of the year, are dangerous at another season from malaria. To such disturbing influences must be added plenty or scarcity of food ; distribution of trees and game ; chance droughts or floods. Any one of these reasons may cause divergence from direct routes of migra- tion. But the one cause which has determined the lines of migration and place of settlement more than another is the influence of tribes and nations upon each other. The primary law governing man is the same as that governing the lower animals ; namely, the survival of the fittest. It is persistent, relentless, and savage, until it is tempered by the higher senti- ments of civilization and the accompanying forms of religion. This law is rarely seen in our present life — usually only in war and in certain commercial restrictions ; but it prevailed in the earlier and lower life of man. The general struggle for existence is now rendered easy for any one willing to labor. Indeed, society INTRODUCTION 13 Yet we shall find here the same general laws. The same purposes, instincts, weaknesses, and nobler qualities will hold as in other lands only to a more or less marked degree according to the environment and the consequent development. The poet recognizes this general similarity when he says : Yet I doubt not through the ages one increasing purpose runs, And the thoughts of men are widened with the process of the suns. ^ And our own poet shows that even the savage Hia- watha partook of the nature common to man : — In all ages Every human heart is human, That in even savage bosoms There are longings, yearnings, strivings For the good they comprehend not.- The study of the ''increasing purpose" of men in ^'' is new world should not be conducted from one indpoint or along any one line. It is a great mis- ke to think that all history lies between the lids of government reports or is made in the city of Wash- ington. The visible government is but the dial plate on which is registered the movement of the i»nside machinery driven by the heart-beat of the people chemselves. Statesmen listen eagerly for the voice of "^he people, and that president who can best prophesy what the people will think and want is given the highest praise for political acumen. We often speak of the expansion and growth of the government. It is true that the number of senators and representatives has been increased from time to 'From Tennyson's " Locksley Hall." 2 From Longfellow's "Hiawatha." I 14 INTRODUCTION time, but that is simply because the people by their westward expansion have created new states. Sec- tion after section of the continent has been acquired and, as fast as sufficient population warranted, new states have been erected on perfect equality with the older ones. Territorial expansion has thus produced political expansion. The study of the expansion of the American people must not be confined to territory. Trade, invention, the arts, education of the masses, the comfort of the people, the aim and scope of the church, the ideals of citizenship and good government — all these have expanded with the increase of territory and popu- lation. Trade is the universal prophet of civilization. It is the all-powerful incentive to action. Trade is ever, hungry for more. It expands, and it creates new peoples. It breaks through its barriers on the line of least resistance. This has been generally on the western side. Hence the expansion of trade and civilization has been toward the west. Columbus in seeking a western passage to India and the American people in crossing the continent from east to west are simply parts of the whole movement. It is as much of a mistake to think the discovery and settlement o- America abnormal as to think that man's ultimate ends were thwarted or disturbed by finding the way to India blocked by a new world peopled with savages. For centuries, perchance since creation, God had caused this continent to lie fallow for a new people. Its virgin soil accumulated the richness of ages of INTRODUCTION 15 vegetable decay and stored up the heat of myriads of sunny days. Hints of the mineral treasures of mother earth were thrown out by the long-continued action of the elements. Its forests reached proportions of untold possibilities. This wilderness is now become a vast garden wherein ncAV peoples, ideals, arts, inventions, and literature are to be propagated and eventually to be carried on to India and the east. The civilization which we are sending by means of missionaries, teachers, physicians, electricians, and in the form of inventions is not the civilization which Columbus would have carried to the east, but infinitely higher and better. God's final purpose is being fulfilled. As Walt Whitman says : Lo, soul, seest thou not God's purpose from the first ? The earth to be spann'd, connected by network, The races, neighbors, to marry and be given in marriage, The oceans to be cross'd, the distant brought near, The lands to be welded together. ^ Westward ho ! is, therefore, the watchword of American expansion from the early morning when Columbus sailed his caravels from Palos out into the unknown west even to the early morning four cen- turies later when the American war vessels steamed into Manila harbor in the known east. The student of this westward expansion will see the people, fever- ish, restless, yearning, driven onward from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Under stress of accumulating popula- tion, barrier after barrier will be swept away and territory after territory added to the domain. Indians, French, and Spanish will be driven from the way or ^ From Whitman's " Passage to India." 16 INTRODUCTION absorbed. Political power will gradually move with the people until the election of 1860 brings the presi- dency to Illinois and the campaign of 1896 a candidate for the presidency to Nebraska. The interior conquest of the country being now complete, the frontier disappears, and the hunger for land and trade brings this isolated and peaceful coun- try into a foreign war and the world's councils. The inciting cause is an uncongenial neighbor, who, after having been gradually pushed off the western main- land, must now be driven out of the hemisphere. The cycle of inter-continental expansion having ended, the era of extra-continental expansion is thus inaugurated. Whether for better or worse, the United States finds itself entering on the old-world policy of external possessions. The verdict lies sealed in the hand of time. But the success of the past is the hope of the future. The Expansion of the American People CHAPTER I PREPARATION OF EUROPE IN THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY FOR EXPANSION It is difficult to imagine the limited conditions sur- rounding European life in the fifteenth century. Each little community was isolated. Travel, save expeditions of war, was rare, and maps were simply locations of castles, and worthless as guides. There was almost a total lack of the world's cooperation and feeling of comity which mark the present age. The simple needs of daily life were supplied by the surrounding fields and forests. Novelties of food, raiment, or utensil were exceedingly uncommon. The churchmen pored over their manuscripts and kept alive the feeble fiame of education. Written books were slightly known to them and unknown to the mass of the people. Recorded history was confined to Europe and Europe was confined to narrow lines. On the north was the frozen ocean ; on the east was the Turk ; on the south was the burning desert of Africa ; and on the west was the great unknown Sea of Darkness. Commerce, the arts, learning — all were lost in the universal wars. War was a trade, serving 17 18 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE the only otlier occupation — world politics. In the preceding century the church had found it necessary to interfere by means of the so-called ' ' Truce of God," which allowed, people less than one hundred days in the entire year for killing each other. ^ Soon this military zeal was to become the servant of the church in the Crusades or Holy Wars, which were begun in order to drive the infidel Turks out of Palestine and so free the sepulchre of Christ from their polluting hands. Christians going on a holy pilgrimage to- the tomb had been scourged and robbed by these Mohammedans. All over Europe went the returned palmers bearing in their hands palm branches from the east as proofs of the pilgrimages which they had made. This sacred token entitled them to entrance to the hearthstone, where they showed their scars and the wounds inflicted upon them in the land hallowed by the footprints of the Man of Peace. Was it possible that God was pleased with such a state of affairs ? Was it not the duty of man to endeavor to correct it? "God wills it" was therefore the cry which greeted the preaching of Peter the Hermit.^ Upon every right arm was placed the holy symbol of the crucifixion of Him whose desecrated tomb they now attempted to recover. ^ The truce forbade under church punishment all quarrels during church festivals and from every Wednesday evening until the fol- lowing Monday morning. 2 Peter tlie Hermit, a native of Picardy, France, was commissioned by Pope Urban II. to preach a crusade against the Turks. He was supposed to have acquired Divine favor by his austere manner of living and vast crowds attended his preaching. In 1096, he led an impatient throng on an unprepared crusade toward Palestine which failed utterly. PREPARATION OF EUROPE FOR EXPANSION 19 If the purpose be judged by the result, it was not the will of God that Jerusalem should be taken and held by the Christians. The armies of knights, bow- men, and spearmen, which marched to the Holy Land from all parts of Christian Europe, could make no permanent stand against the swarms of fanatical Turks, which came in ever-increasing numbers from the parent hive in Arabia. But those who believe in finding the will of God working through a larger series than a single event are able to find the final fruition of the Crusades in the effect they had on Europe. It was true that after the Crusades were over the Turk still held the sacred tomb. He still reared his ugly head as master of the East, impregnable alike to Christian warfare and Christian civilization. But the expeditions which the Christians made against him had left a lasting impression upon themselves. Never again could Europe be the same. During the Crusades its people had built vessels and had crossed the inland seas.. They had tasted new foods and seen new garments in the east. These they craved after returning home. Trade and commerce were ex- tended. The nobility had iDcrished in large numbers and the common people began to get the first glimpses of their rights. Democracy or the rule of the people reddened the sky with the prophecy of her coming dawn. So much warfare had caused the invention of new engines of battle, and especially an explosive powder for the guns, called gunpowder. War was never again to be a holiday excursion of tournaments and lances. Life assumed a new value in the presence of such destructive force. 20 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE Contact with each other had brought about a new feeling of comity among the nations. They had been engaged in the same cause, had endured the same hardships, had shared the same victories and defeats, and had learned to a certain extent each other's lan- guage. Hereafter there must be visiting and travel- ing and intercourse. What would interest one would interest all. The world began to narrow and men's ideas to widen. It was certain that the memories of the feats accomplished in the Crusades would remain to be told in song and story and to stir men's blood. Hereafter adventures and deeds of daring would be more common. Men were preparing to sail and "wrest the secret of the skies." Trade would demand expansion and bold hearts would not be wanting. An incitement was soon found in far Cathay. For a hundred years following the conquests of Jenghiz Klian,^ Cliina had been open to the Europeans. The period afforded but a glimpse of a land of almond- eyed, pig-tailed people, eager to learn the ways of the Westerners, and possessed of certain arts and manu- factures unknown to Europe. Tradition said that it was from them that the Arabians had learned the art of the suspended magnetic needle which points so invariably to the north. The Crusaders had gained knowledge of its use from the Arabians and the tradi- tion but whetted the appetite for further information concerning this unknown land and people. From the 1 A Mongol who conquered northern China in 1215. Also spelled Genghis, Cliinghiz, and Jingis Khan, PREPARATION OF EUROPE FOR EXPANSION 21 Khitai rulers the country had received the name of Cathay/ Thus curiosity was added to the natural desire for trade with this far land and its better known neighbor, India. But the Turks had broken up old lines of travel to the east and stood in the way to Cathay. So pent up, the boiling caldron of Europe was now ready to overflow in expansion. If the Turk could not be overcome or puslied from the way, he might be circumvented. Surely there was some way around him. The burning south was more inviting for this attempt than the frozen north, since it afforded at least navigable water. At intervals adventurous cap- tains had crept down the west coast of Africa and had learned of tlie treasures of the Gold Coast ^ which the. caravans of the desert carried to the coffers of the infidels. The attempt to secure these riches for the Christians brought at once the suggestion of continu- ing the journey down the African coast in search of some passage to the east. From his student's cloister on the barren rock of Sagres in southern Portugal, supposed by the old Greeks to be the end of the world. Prince Henr}^ of Portugal ^ sent out his brave navigators on these ' Poets still refer to China as Cathay. For instance, Tennyson in " Locksley Hall" says: Better fifty years of Europe than a cycle of Cathay. 2 A name applied generally to the coast along the Gulf of Guinea because of the discovery of gold. Later it has been used to desig- nate one colony on that coast. ^ The fifth son of John I. of Portugal. Devoting himself to the study of astronomy and navigation, he retired to his observatory on the southwest point of Portugal, where he died in 1460. There is a monograph on his services in the Report of the American Historical Society, 1892. 22 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE southern voyages. He was the Grand Master of the Order of Christ and his captains and sailors were moved hj religious as well as worldly motives. Visions of riches ample enough for another Crusade filled their minds and strengthed their hearts as they pushed down past the dreaded Cape Non (Latin — not), so-called from the proverb, "Whoever passes Cax^e Non will return or not.^'' Under the same inspiration they ventured out to the Madeiras and sailed down past Cape Bojador/ In order to save the heathen whom they found along the African coast they brought back to Portugal some of them, who were to be converted and returned as missionaries. But a covetous spirit prostituted this lofty purpose to human slavery. Later, the equator was crossed, the Ca]3e Verde Islands were visited, and the lower Congo was explored. These achievements took many years, and it was twenty-six years after the death of Prince Henry before Bartholomew Dias^ and his shij)mate Bartholomew Columbus ^ rounded what they called the Stormy Cape, but which upon their safe return was renamed the Cape of Good Hope.* Notwithstanding these triumphs in the south, Europe still stood with her back to the west and her ^ An unimportant cape of northwestern Africa, but believed by the sailors to be inhabited by some evil spirit which caused the tumultuous waters usually encountered there. - A Portuguese navigator who rounded the southern point of Africa and who would have pushed on to India had not his sailors refused to go farther. He was lost in the later expedition whicli gained Portugal a foothold in South America. ^ Bartholomew was one of the brothers of Christopher Columbus and his companion and assistant in much of the great Christopher's career. *The southern point of Africa. PREPARATION OF EUROPE FOR EXPANSION 23 longing gaze turned to the east. The passage to India had not yet been found. The earth might indeed be a fiat surface so far as the knowledge then gained was concerned. Wise men had held since the days of Aristotle ^ that the form of the earth was round. Ptolemy'' and Roger Bacon ^ strengthened the theory. But a long time is required for wisdom to pass from philosophers to sea captains. The common people were grossly ignorant and superstitious. To the west stretched what they called the vast Sea of Darkness. The venturing seafarer would probably find an edge over which he would tumble to unknown depths. There certainly was a hill in the sea since ships sailed down over it out of sight just as a vehicle disappeared over a hill on land. The only chance of a vessel ever coming back up the hill was the fortune of a stern wind sufficiently strong. A calm would mean delay and starvation. There were other dangers in this western ocean. Tradition told of islands peopled by dog-faced men, by man-eaters, and places inhabited only by women. Sirens lured vessels on dangerous rocks and floating islands menaced navigation by refusing to remain where they were charted. Fish and water serpents reached a dangerous size, often plucking sailors from their vessels. It was recorded that on a voyage of St. Catharine a gigantic fish came up under one of the lA Greek philosopher (born 384; died 322 b. c). His books on natural science were used as text books in the Greek schools. 2 A celebrated astronomer at Alexandria in the first half of the second century a. d. His "system" or theories held to the time of Columbus, over twelve hundred years. ^ An English philosopher or scientist of the thirteenth century. 24 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE vessels one day and lifted it entirely from the water. The sailors took the unexpected opportunity of land- ing and an altar was set up on the back of the fish where the services of the church were performed. Ptolemy had supposed that to the east of Cathay there lay a vast land ' ' full of reedy and impenetrable swamps." But Marco Polo ^verified a rumor that the land had an end in that direction and nothing but water met the eye beyond. This was the exact appear- ance in looking west from Eu- ro p e . East from Asia — water; west from Europe — water. It is impossible t o say what mind first sprang to the conclusion that if tlie world be round then the two bodies of water must be the same, and, being crossed, tlie globe would be circumnavigated and a western passage to India be found. ILLUSTRATION FROM " PHILOPONO'S VOYA(JEs' ^ A Venetian traveler in the east whose adventures are well worth reading. He vras one of the first Europeans to enter China (about 1270). CHAPTER II SPAIN IN THE WESTERN EXPANSION Many feverish captains now turned their finding eyes into this Sea of Darkness, but one only had the lofty purpose, perseverance and courageous will power necessary to put his theory into execution. Whether Christopher Columbus gained his idea of the western continuity of the water between Europe and India from his brother, Bartholomew, who had rounded the Cape of Good Hope, or from the map of the astron- omer, Toscanelli,^ is not important. The map had been constructed according to the estimates of the best geographers, but they erred in supposing the circumference of the earth to be but twenty thousand instead of twent3^-five thousand miles. Of this cir- cumference six-sevenths were thought to be covered by the continents and islands, leaving not much more than 2,500 miles to be sailed over from the Canaries to the wonderful island of Cipango "^ (Japan) off the Asiatic coast. In truth, from Spain to Japan was not much short of ten thousand miles. ^ Toscanelli, a Florentine astronomer, made the map used by- Columbus on his first voyage. He had died ten years before the voyage was made. Justin Winsor's ' ' Narrative and Critical His- tory of the United States," Vol. II., contains a history of map making at this time. 2 Marco Polo had heard from the Chinese of a wonderful island lying off their coast named Cipango or Zumpango. It was custom- ary to represent it on the maps as a large square island among the thousand islands with which that part of the ocean was supposed to be dotted. 25 26 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE Religious feeling was one of the prime incentives to action in Columbus. If he could discover this out- ward way to the Indies, he saw himself loaded with riches which he would use in renewing the Crusades. He pledged all the gold he should find to the use of the church and added to his prayer, "Surely under these condi- tions God will g r a n t my prayer." He always claimed that charts and compasses had nothing to do with the case; that he had been led by God's hand across the pathless wa- ters.' Peril aps it was this faith which sustained him throughout the thirty-seven days which it took to sail his three caravels over the 3,230 miles from the Canaries to the Bahamas. This faith kept his eye on the west whenever he was THE WESTERX WORT.D AS IT IS ("HEAVY tlNES) AND AS COLUMBUS THOUGHT IT WAS (LIGHT LIXES) ^Inapoein called " The Praj'er of Columbus," Walt Wliitman has well preserved this high purpose of Columbus, M'hich unfortu- nately was not carried out. Winsor's " Cliristopher Columbus" deals very justly with him. Lowell's "Columbus" makes a personal application of his example. SPAIN IN THE WESTERN EXPANSION 27 tempted to turn back. His vessels were small, their length being but four times their breadth, their sails were low set, and their unsheathed hulls offered an easy prey to the Avorms of the tropical seas. The ninety persons on the three vessels were insufficient for a meeting with pirates, but too many should con- trary winds delay the vessels beyond the three months for which they were provisioned. The crews had been gathered in Palos ^ with great difficulty amidst the wee^Ding of women for relatives and sweethearts destined to be swallowed up in the Sea of Darkness. As inducements to enlist, jails were opened and debtors forgiven. Mutiny was bred in such a crew before a sail was hoisted. But super- stition works strongly in such minds. A shooting star, a wreck of a mast floating by, a mirage — all conspired to quiet concerted mutinous movements, although it was probably only the conviction that Columbus alone could guide them back to Spain which saved his obstinate head. He, himself, had enough to occwpy his mind in the inexplicable variation of the magnetic needle.^ There might be another pole or twenty poles, rendering the compass useless. Then came the marvelous sea of weeds, ^ which might con- ^ Palos was a seaport on the southwest coast of Spain and a natural starting point for expeditions to the west. From it Pizarro and Cortez also sailed. Its harbor is now filled with sand. 2 The line of no variation of the magnetic needle passes from north to south through the Atlantic. On the European side navigators were accustomed to have the needle point a little to the right of the "north" star. Hence the alarm of Columbus when it gradually swung over to the left of the star. ^The "Sargasso Sea" is simply a quiet place between the great ocean currents in the Atlantic. Sea-weed grows on the unmoving surface and accumulates in tangled masses, which retarded the 28 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE ceal dangerous ledges of rock or which might entwine itself about the ships and hold them, leaving the helpless crews to perish of madness or hunger. The steady trade wind was also a source of amazement to one familiar with the varying breezes near the coast. When Columbus at last set foot on land it was the first one of many triumphs which have marked this new world. It was a victory of mind over matter, of persistence over obstacles. What faith in man must in this new world beat Thinking, how once he saw before his face The West, and all the host of stars retreat, Into the silent infinite of space. ^ Columbus went to his grave ignorant of the fact that he had discovered a new world. ^ He supposed that he had missed Japan but had landed among the islands of India and hence called the inhabitants Indians. Across his passage to India a continent had arisen which would probably have prevented his setting sail if he had known of its existence. But the civilization which he would have carried to India was simply delayed on the unknown continent until it has reached a beneficence and utility undreamed of hj the navigator of Genoa. ^ Exploring expeditions subsequent to Columbus progress of the caravels. There was a rumor of an " unsailable sea" to the west and the sailors sujiposed tliey had reached it. ^ From the Century Magazine, May, 1893. See also Sidney Lanier's " Psalm of the West." - It should be said tliat this point is in dispute among historians, but it is stated strongly here since the impression prevails so widely that Columbus started out to find a new world instead of anothei way around to the old. ■''Whitman has expanded this thought in his "Passage to India." SPAIN IN THE WESTERN EXPANSION 29 were simply rounding out the expansion which he had inaugurated. The Spanish spread over the islands and connecting lands between the two con- tinents of America. They occupied all of South America, except Portuguese Brazil. They took pos- session of the region on the north and west of the Gulf of Mexico. John Cabot, a geographer of Venice, five years THE TWO TYPICAI- PORTRAITS OF COLUMBUS * after the first voyage of Columbus, in the name of the King of England planted a large cross with the flags of England and St. Mark on the northern mainland, perhaps near Hudson Bay. The next year his son, * There are scores of portraits of Columbus, but no one can be 3rified. They may be grouped into two distinct tyi>es, the one aown as the "Marine," from the painting in the Marine Museum "t, Madrid. The other, or "Dutch"' type, is not so generally used ir illustrations. It maybe represented by the portrait in De Bry's "oyages, published about 1590. 30 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE Sebastian, claimed to have sailed along the Atlantic coast from that point as far south as Florida/ Forty-two years after the first voyage of Columbus, Jacques Cartier,^ a French sailor, following the tradi- tional fisherman's track toward the fishing banks, sailed about the island of Newfoundland and entered the Gulf of St. Lawrence, which he supposed led to Cathay. On another voyage the following j^ear he reached the present site of Montreal. The French were thus given the northern portion of the continent. Cabral, of Portugal, chanced upon the Coast of Brazil and laid the foundation of the very short- lived claim of the Portuguese to that country.^ Thus by the chance of wind and wave, aided to a slight extent by the mariner's compass, representa- tives of the four leading nations of Europe had been cast upon a new world. Italy gave birth to several of these courageous captains,* but when they sailed they were merely hired men. The flag of their coun- try never flew from their mast heads and Italy never gained a foothold in America. Fortune had smiled especially upon the Spanish, the French, and the ^ The discoveries made by Cabot and his son, Sebastian, are not clear, but on them England based her claims to all the land be- tween 34 and 45 degrees north latitude. She later extended her claim down to 31 degrees. "Cartier was born the second year after the first voyage of Columbus. He made three voyages to Canada in the interest of his native France. Some French writers base the claims of their country on Verrazano, instead of Cartier. ^Sailing to India around Cape of Good Hope, Cabral kept far out into the Atlantic and touched the South American coast in what is now Brazil. He later completed his journey to India, but his acci- dental landing in America gave a claim for tlie Portuguese, which was sustained by the Pope. * Not only Columbus, but also Amerigo Vespucci, Verrazano, and, probably, John Cabot were Italians. SPAIN IN THE WESTERN EXPANSION 31 English, and had granted vast possessions and untold opj)ortunities to them in this greatest expansion in recorded history. But it was not likely that they would prove con- genial neiglibors, especially in a new land where the customary laws of society must largely disappear. Civilization had turned backward toward a state of nature. The old law of the survival of the fittest would be apparent. In the coming struggle each nation must depend upon its fitness and its fitness would be determined by the standard of its past life. Portugal in a few years passed temporarily into the hands of Spain and so may be eliminated. Whilst other nations were extending their territory, France was engaged in her long and bloody re- ligious wars. When Louis XIV. at last turned his attention to America it was only to attempt to transplant thither a feudal colonial system and a bigoted church, equally out of place in a new world. He had allowed the more advanced English to assume too great proportions, as we shall ee. At first sight Spain would seem to be the power estiiied to survive. She first amono; the nations ^Spanish mil FRENCH IPORTUOOESE I English MAP ILLUSTRATING THE EARLY PARTI- TION OF AMERICA 32 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE planted her flag in the western land and she extended its sway with marvelous rapidity for three-quarters of a century. The eight hundred years of war with the Moors ^ had given her the energy to do this. . But her climax had been reached. She was exhausted eco- nomically by the war and, still worse, the moral spirit of her people had been reduced by it. Despoiling the Moors had made brigandage legitimate. Long contact with an enemy had engendered "Spanish cruelty." The employment of the conquered Moors in common labor had brought labor into contempt. The introduction of African slavery was now easy.^ Further, the Moorish wars had kept Spain from taking part in the Crusades and getting their broad- ening influence. Otherwise slie might never have used the church as an agency of oppression. In 1567, she began that disastrous persecution of the Protestant Netherlands, which marks the beginning of her long and uniform decline. She had driven out the infidel ; she must now cast out the heretic. Before eigliteen years had passed, England had gained sufficient strength to scatter Spain's "invin- cible" Armada^ and her sea prestige was gone fore v^^^ ^ The Arab invaders of Spain. After eight centuries of warfare, the Spaniards succeeded in driving out or converting them. The end of this struggle gave the Spanish nionarchs opportunity of aiding Columbus. -' About 1442, Portugal began to supplant the few Moorish slaves she held with Africans from farther down the coast. Tlie Spanish followed this example not only at home, but in America where the Africans replaced tlie Indian slaves. It is estimated that one and one-half million Indians died in the Spanish mines in the first fifteen years. Thus by the discovery of two continents, one was made to furnish slaves to the other. ^ Armada is a Spanish word meaning armed force. Hence it was applied to the navy sent against England in 1588. It M-as a crusade SPAIN IN THE WESTERN EXPANSION 33 But for this transition of power, Spain might have contested successfully the attempts of England to plant colonies in the new world, and the whole trend of American history would have been altered. A per- petual serfdom in subordinate colonies would have rendered impossible the evolution of a higher state such as was hoped for in tliis untainted west. In ■ ENGLISH m SPANISH ENGLISH (AMERICANS) AND SPANISH IN THE WESTERN WORLD iew instances is tlie hand of Providence more mani- fest. But the laws of the moral world are as immutable as those of the natural world. Spain's four hundred years of training in cruelty and bigotry was unlikely of Roman Catholic Spain against Protestant England. The Armada contained at least 180 vessels and almost 30,000 soldiers and sailors. A great storm completed the work of the English and not one- fourth the Spanish vessels ever returned to Spain. 34 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE to be oyercome by one lesson. Within twenty years after the loss of the Armada, the edict went forth for the expulsion of the Moriscos, or converted Moham- medans/ from Spain. Industrial suicide was never more successfully committed than when these skillful artisans and patient laborers were driven over to Africa or slaughtered. The Spanish state thus committed to the suppres- sion of individualism became a vast machine for the aggrandizement of the central wealth and power. The church had absolute sway over governmental policies and cut off those commercial interests so vital to the colonies. They in turn were reduced to dependencies occupying a certain social relation to the king. The distant colonist and the savage alike had no claim on the protection nor the mercy of the home government. They became parts of the external machine. No one born outside the peninsula of Spain was entitled to be called a Spaniard or to hold office. The commercial wrongs which caused the revolution of the English-speaking colonies w^ere suf- fered a thousand fold worse by the sluggish Spanish colonies.^ 1 This is one instance in which injustice was followed by im- mediate punishment. Spanish industrial decline began almost immediately. Commonly a longer time is required to work out effects from a cause and the punishment therefore falls upon the children. See the last chapter in Fiske's "Discovery of America." 2 Vessels could sail for Spanish America but from one port in Spain and on but two days each year. They were allowed to land at only two ports in America. Colonial offices were held by citizens of Spain. Of 170 Colonial Viceroys appointed in three centuries, only four were born outside Spain; of 160 Captains-General, only fourteen were colonists. Unlike the English colonists, the Span- iards in America had absolutely no home-rule. See Professor Moses' " Establishment of Spanish Rule in America" and Caldecott's "English Colonial Empire." SPAIN IN THE WESTERN EXPANSION 35 But retribution is as certain to follow a nation as an individual. The decline of Spain had been marked by the competing nations. England and France assumed possessions in the new world regardless of her. Indeed before the year 1700 showed on the dial of time the flag of France had replaced that of Spain in Hispaniola^ and the English had wrested Jamaica^ from the relinquishing grasp of the Spaniard. The fittest always survive. Columbus had found a world for Spain, but she was not fit to retain it. 1 The island formerly known to the Spanish by this name embraces what is now Hayti and Santo Domingo. Columbus planted on it the first colony in the new world (1493). In 1697, owing- to Spanish neglect, it was ceded to France. 2 This is the most important island in the Greater Antilles, east of Cuba. The Spaniards settled it in 1509, but lost it in 1655. It has since belonged to England. CHAPTER III ALIEN PEOPLES IN THE ENGLISH COLONIES Colonies are naturally of slow growth, especially when separated from the parent country by an ocean's ex]3anse. One is not surprised to find that fully a hundred years elapsed after colonies were perma- nently planted in the new world before they had expanded sufhciently to cause a struggle for territory between the nations they represented. This long period afforded the English-speaking colonies an opportunity of evolving some uniformity from the divergent race elements cast within their borders. Not only had Germans, Scotch, Scotch-Irish, and French found a refuge and home under their liberal government, but the Dutch and Swedes occupied land within the limits claimed by the English by right of discovery. The Netherlanders had gained a foothold through their instinct for trade. ^ The first Dutch com- pany was organized to trade with the new world just one hundred years after its discovery. Little was effected by this or other organizations until Henrj'- Hudson,^ an adventurous Englishman under Dutch ^ The Spanish, French, and English had divided up the Atlantic coast by right of discovery. The Dutch had taken no part in these voyages and came only as traders. Their presence was naturally felt by the others to be an intrusion. ^ The adventures of Hudson are almost beyond belief. His fate in being turned adrift by a mutinous crew and never being heard from again was in accord with his whole life. 36 ALIEN PEOPLES IN THE ENGLISH COLONIES 37 employ, in search of a passage to India through the heart of the continent, anchored in what he called the "Great North River of New-Netherland " (later named the Hudson), and returned to inflame his phlegmatic employers with descriptions of the beauty and fertility of the country adjacent to the river. This was eleven years before the Mayflower sailed and but two years after the founding of Jamestown, Virginia. The Englishmen of Virginia did not fail to protest against the Dutch taking up residence in their charter limits ; ^ nevertheless the Dutch soon had settlements extending from Fort Nassau (now Gloucester) , New Jersey, some four miles below Philadelphia, to Fort Orange (now Albany), New York. They also conquered the Swedes along the Delaware. However aggressive the Netherlanders were in trade they were not so in arms. Their southern settlements were soon abandoned. Connecticut was formed by the English within their territory on the other side. When the English were ready to assert their rights over all the territory they claimed by discovery, the Netherlanders were not prepared to offer any resist- ance. In 1663, the vessels of Charles II. appeared in the lower bay, and the English landed. Governor Peter Stuyvesant^ stumped about on his wooden leg in ^ Different trading companies obtained from their governments charters or rights to the land of America within certain limits. The stockholders of these companies lived in England and sent out colonies for their respective lands. 2 Stuy vesant had lost a leg in the service of the Dutch West India company. His impotent wrath over the surrender of New York to the English is humorously described in Irving's " Knickerbocker's History of New York." 38 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE helpless rage, but the people were willing to trust the well-known justice of English rule and would make no resistance. The land was at once made into pro- prietary governments. New Amsterdam and the Hud- son regions were given to the king's brother and OLD SWEDISH CHURCH. WILMINGTON, DELAWARK named New York in his honor ; the lands to the south were named New Jersey in compliment to the birth- place of one of the new proprietors.^ Fort Orange was renamed Albany ; other Dutch names of places were changed and the English obliterated from the 1 The land lying between the Hudson and the Delaware was granted to Lord Berkele}' and Sir George Carteret. The latter had been born in the island of Jersey in the English Channel, and had also defended that island in the Puritan wars. The name of "New- Jersey" was therefore applied to this grant in the new world. ALIEN PEOPLES IN THE ENGLISH COLONIES 39 map all traces of Dutch possession. Yet Dutch families of "Vans" and " Vons " retained a lead in early New York society, to be immortalized by Irving with the title of " Knickerbockers." ^ The great Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden had desired a share of the western world, but wars and other distracting circumstances postponed the attempt until 1638, when Peter Minuit,^ under orders from a Swedish company, landed his small colony on the west side of Delaware Bay, purchased land up the Delaware river from the Indians and named the territory New Sweden. The Swedes founded Fort Christina, New Gottenburg, Printzdorp, Upland, Fin- land, and other towns in what is now the state of Delaware. Seventeen years later, the Dutch came down from New Amsterdam (New York) and con- quered the Swedes, only to be absorbed by the English a few years afterward. In 1681, Delaware was included in the grant to William Penn.^ The Swedes enjoyed the toleration of the Quaker government and gradually became incorporated in the families of Delaware and adjacent states. Peterson (Pietterson), ^The term "Knickerbocker" arises from the nom de plume or name assumed by Irving in writing his "history" of New York, It became a part of a shrewd advertising scheme in announcing the book, as described in the introduction to most editions. Since that time, descendants of the Dutch in New York have been called ' ' Knickerbockers. ' ' 2 Gustavus Adolphus had died a few years before this time. Minuit served the Dutch before engaging with the Swedes. He had about fifty colonists when he entered the Delaware. He was governor of New Sweden for three years. ^ Delaware therefore never was counted as a separate state before rJie Revolution, although she had a separate legislature after 1702. The colonial governor of Pennsylvania was always the governor of Delaware. She was usually styled "The Three Lower Counties. " 40 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE Springer, Paulson, and Hendrickson are examples of these family names still to be found in those parts. The Germans also found a place in the English pos- sessions, but with them the English had no such con- test, since they came not to gain empire or trade, but to find freedom from w^arring Europe. Any one con- versant with the Teutonic love of home and quiet must admit that only a powerful reason could have driven the people of Germany to exile and the hard- ships of a new country. For almost a century Ger- many had been the fighting ground of Europe. Then the Thirty Years' War,^ with its horde of camp fol- lowers living on pillage, in a short time destroyed the fruits of years of toil and privation in i3eaceful Germany. In some places the population decreased sixty per cent, and wealth and property still more. The gruesome story of the continued wars is told by the ruins of castles and towers which to-day charm travelers from the rocky heights bordering the beloved Rhine. Boat after boat filled w^ith tearful emigrants, car- rying wdiatever could be saved from their ruined homes, floated dow^n the rapid current of the Ehine to Rotterdam, there to embark for some portion of the western world. The society of the savage was to be preferred to the cruelty of civilization. If vessels wei-e wanting at Rotterdam, the emigrants crossed to hospitable England, where their destitute condition won the sympathy of all hearts. In IGDO, thirteen ^ A religious-political war, waged for the most part in Germany, and involving all the nations of central Europe, was terminated by the peace of Westphalia in 1G48. Austria and Spain were pitted against France, Sweden and Denmark. ALIEN PEOPLES IN THE ENGLISH COLONIES 41 thousand men, women, and children from the Rhine region were given shelter in tents erected in the suburbs of London, until they could be passed on to America. Thousands of pounds were subscribed for their relief. These people would be attracted by a government promising religious liberty and consequent freedom from the religious wars which had driven them from home. T]iey were Lutherans or members of the scores of sects akin to Lutheranism, but all had the zeal for propagandism burned out by persecution. They wanted simply to be let alone. Such a desire was in fine accord with the high ideal of William Penn. The inner light by which tlie Friend is guided takes the place of a guardianshijD of conscience at the hands of the state. Therefore Penn turned eagerly toward these Germans in his search for colonists to people the vast expanse of his grant of land extending five degrees west from the Delaware river. He made three visits to Germany. Pamphlets flowed from the printing presses^ in High German, Low German, French and English to describe the natural advan- tages of Pennsylvania. At Frankfort and Crefeld, German companies were organized and all hopes cen- tered in the new " Province of Quackerthal." ^ So vast became the tide of emigration that it was currently believed that the Quakers used some kind ^Sachse's " The Fatherland " describes thirty-four of these pam- phlets still in existence. The one shown in the cut is in the Con- gressional Library at Washington. 2 The Germans changed the spelling of Quaker into Quacker. as shown in Quackerthal, that is, Quaker Valley. The Dutch spelled it Quaaker. 42 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE of philtre or powder to charm the people and gain recruits for Pennsylvania. Both the States-General and England found it necessary to take steps to check the tide ; the one lest her country be depopulated and E E N ^- BRIEF Van ecu zcker H e e r. WILLIAM PENN, Eygenaar en Gouverneur van ^ PENSYLVANI A; Bcncffens zvn ANTWOORD daar op. Vyt het Engelfch I'ertaald. c t t'AmfterdaiTi , by dc Wed van Steven SwaRT, I bczyde dc Ucurs, i6 8». ^ DUTCH PAMPHLET OF WILLIAM PKXN' the other lest she have a German colony in the midst of her American possessions.^ A writer in the 1 England required all alien colonists to register as they entered the American ports. Rupp has collected these lists for Philadelphia in his "Ten Thousand Names," etc. Franklin's writings give a panoramic view of these Germans. Their descendants are now commonly called "Pennsylvania Dutch." i ALIEN PEOPLES IN THE ENGLISH COLONIES 43 Columbian Magazine, January, 1789, gives an interest- ing view of the Pennsylvania Germans. Those first coming migrated from the Palatinate, from Alsace, Swabia, Saxony, and Switzerland; but every j)rincipality is now represented in the state. They brought with them only a few pieces of gold or silver coin, a chest filled with clothes, a Bible, and a praj'er or an hymn book. Many bound themselves or their chil- dren for four to seven years to pay their passage. They are chiefly farmers; also weavers, taylors, tanners, shoemakers, comb-makers, smiths of all kinds, butchers, bakers, paper-makers, watch-makers, and sugar bakers. In settling, they always provide large and suit- able accommodations for their horses and cattle, before they lay out much money in building a house for themselves. They prefer meadow land, and clear their fields by removing the trees instead of girdling them. This causes a saving in broken plows over the usual custom. They also practice economy in using stoves instead of fireplaces, in keeping their houses warm in order to save food, and in feeding their horses so well that a German horse was known in every part of the state. Their fences are high and sufiicient to protect the crops. The usual diet of the English residents before their coming had been beets and turnips; the Germans added sallads, onions and cabbage, the last of which they make into ''sour crout.'' They bring these vegetables into Philadelphia in large and strong wagons, covered with linen cloth, and drawn by four or five large horses of a peculiar breed. It is no uncommon thing to meet in one day from fifty to one hundred of these wagons on the Lan- caster and Reading roads. The Germans live frugally, eat sparingly of animal food and rarely use distilled spirits. Their furniture is plain and useful. They cover themselves in winter with light feather beds instead of blankets ; in this contrivance there is both convenience and econ- omy, for the beds are warmer than blankets, and they are made by themselves. The farmers are very much influenced in planting and pruning trees, also in sowing and reaping, by the age and appear- ances of the moon. Francis Daniel Pastorius,^ a German Quaker, from Westphalia, planted his Scripture-governed commu- ^ See Whittier's "Pennsylvania Pilgrim," where the simple lives of Francis and Anna Pastorius are described. 44 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE nity of thirteen families at German-town north of Philadelpliia (now a part of the city). Penn was present and partook of the dinner eaten after the "raising" of the first two-story house. Soon the German Language was heard in all the region lying west, northwest, and north of Philadelphia, and the foundations were laid for the predominance in Penn- sylvania and in national history of such names as Rittenhouse, Shoemaker, Muhlenburg, Zollicoffer, Siegel, and Pennypacker. The region to the south and southwest of Philadelphia was settled by the English Quakers. In 176G, Franklin estimated that there were about one hundred and thirty-six thousand whites in Pennsylvania, of whom one-third were Quakers (English) and one-third Germans. In some years as many as twelve thousand Germans arrived on the Pennsylvania^ Patience^ Two Brothers, Phwni.r, or other vessels sailing between Rotterdam and Phila- delphia. But the German immigration was not confined to Pennsylvania, although largest there. About 1710, three thousand Palatines Mvere located on the banks of the Hudson river where now is the city of New- burg — possibly named from the house of Newburg. They were to act as a barrier or protection against the French, who were drawing too near English ter- ritory along the easy route of Lake Champlain. Inci- dentally these Germans were employed in making turpentine and tar from the sap of pine trees. They suffered great hardships. Four liundred and seventy 1 Coming from the Upper and Lower Palatinate, states of Germany. ALIEN PEOPLES IN THE ENGLISH COLONIES 45 had died on the voyage. Their importation proved unprofitable to the government. Eventually their children were indentured or "bound out," the boys until they were seventeen and the girls until fifteen. Other and smaller groups of these people found homes in the uplands of Virginia under Governor Spotswood ; at New Berne, North Carolina ; and at different places through the seaboard colonies. Three hundred of them journeyed even to the Mississippi, settling a few miles above New Orleans. The French in the English colonies owed their migration to religious persecution as did the Ger- mans. The attempt of Roman Catholic France to put down the Huguenots caused early beginnings of colonization to be made in a part of Florida claimed by France and in French Acadia (Nova Scotia). But the former was broken up by the Spaniards, and the latter superseded by the Jesuits. Many Huguenots had fled from French provinces to tolerant Holland. These Walloons and Waldenses, as they were called, fraternized with the Netherlanders and accompanied them on the migration to America. About New York and the states immediately west one now finds descendants of the families of Depuis (Depew and Dupee), Vincent, Richards, Turner, Camp, Clement, Perrine, Canon, Dubois (Boise, Boyce, Boice) , Vaux, Hasbrocq (Hasbrook), Provost, and De Peyster. When Rochelle, the stronghold of the French Protestants, was broken up, its people came over the ocean and founded New Rochelle near New York. Many French refugees found a home in Boston. From them came Peter Faneuil, who built for the 46 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE city the market house celebrated as the "cradle of liberty," from the many meetings held tliere during the rising of the Revolution. Paul Revere, the Revo- lutionary express rider, was also descended from the Huguenots. John Jay, the first chief justice of the United States, was the grandson of a French emigrant. The Scotch and Scotch-Irish^ were scattered throughout the colonies, but predominated in parts of New Hampshire and in southwestern Pennsylvania. From the latter region, they migrated dc^n the Shen- andoah and adjoining valleys into western Virginia and the Carolinas. The internal troubles of Virginia which terminated in the separation of West Virginia in 1863 were born of race differences. The signers of the Mecklenburg "declaration" were mostly Scotch.^ It is a difficult task to plot the Welsh on the map in America, as it is the Scotch and Irish. Many spoke English and others rapidly adopted that tongue and all were soon assimilated with the masses. A descend- ant of the Welsh claims that seventeen of the signers of the Declaration of Independence were of Welsh extraction, one of them. Button Gwinnett, having been born in Wales. He claims seven presi- dents of the United States before Lincoln ; also both ^ About 1610, after repeated rebellions on the part of the Irish Roman Catholics, King James I. of England gave about one-half million acres of land in northern Ireland to Scotch Presbyterians if they would remove there. These Scotch migrating to Ireland gave origin to the " Scotch-Irish." Soon after 1700 they complained of unjust treatment by Anne and numbers of them came to America. They w^ere generally Presb3^terians, as were the other Scotch who came to America for the sake of religious freedom. - Over a year before the passing of the motion for Independence by the Continental Congress, the citizens of Mecklenburg county, North Carolina, reasoned that the king and parliament by their own actions had freed the colonists from all allegiance. ALIEN PEOPLES IN THE ENGLISH COLONIES 47 the Adamses, Jefferson, the Lees, Robert Morris, Harrison, and Hopkinson.^ This process of assimilating different nationalities continues in the United States to this day, although the foreign nations contributing have changed from time to time. A new country possesses powerful absorbing qualities. A new type has been created — the energetic, courageous "American" — who exhibits some traits of each of the parent peoples and all the traits of no one of them. A much more local spirit characterized the people in colonial days, as we shall now see in examining their conditions and surroundings. ^ The Rev. Dr. West in a pamphlet containing an address at the laying of the corner stone of a church in Philadelphia, 1857. NKW AMSTERDAM ( NKW \ OKK ) IN 1673 CHAPTER IV LIFE IN THE ENGLISH COLONIES IN AMERICA The population of the American colonies under English control was estimated in 1750 at but little over a million, not nearly so many people as are now found in one of our great cities.^ They were scattered in isolated communities about some bay or inlet or on some navigable water. They had little in common and but slight means of communication. In many instances the race differences noted in the preceding chapter acted as a decentralizing factor. Father ^ Proportionate representation was unknown to the colonists and no occasion for taking a census arose. In some places there was a strong antipathy to any numbering of the people, because it was supposed to cause illness. Estimates or guesses at the population of the colonies were reported at different times by the royal gover- nors. The first two columns of the following table are taken from these reports. The third is an estimate made by the delegates in the Continental Congress for the just distribution of the financial burdens. The last column is the first census of the United States : New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Ehode Island, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware, 20,000 Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Pennsylvania and Delaware were counted together until the Revolution. Georgia was not founded until 1733. 48 1701. 1750. 1783. 1790. 10,000 30,000 52,708 141,885 70,000 220,000 224,427 378,787 30,000 100,000 132,091 237,946 10,000 35,000 32,318 68,825 30,000 100,000 128,243 340,120 15,000 60,000 83,358 184,139 20,000 250,000 ( Penn) 205,189 434,373 22,443 59,096 25^000 sim 141.517 319,728 40,000 85,000 256,487 747,610 5,000 45,000 109,006 393,751 7.000 30,000 96,183 249,073 6,000 18,030 82,548 LIFE IN THE ENGLISH COLONIES IN AMERICA 49 Jogiies^ in 1643 had counted eighteen different dia- lects spoken in what is now the city of New York. Burnaby^ wrote down the opinion that "fire and water are not more heterogeneous than the different colonies. . . . Were they left to themselves there would soon be a civil war from one end of the con- tinent to the other." James Otis, of Eevolutionary fame, said, " America would be a mere shambles of blood and confusion before little petty states could be settled " if she should become independent. Thus surrounded by the wilderness and cut up into little groups, the colonists were keenly susceptible to religious feeling. Man's helplessness brought a dependence on Omnipotence. Phenomena of nature which we now ascribe to natural laws were attributed by the colonist to a personal God. When a gallery in Jonathan Edwards's^ church fell, Edwards said that God so arranged the place where every stick and beam should fall that no one in the house was injured. When the great revival of 1736 brought on the convulsions commonly called *' the jerks," Edwards refused to believe they were caused by ^ A French Jesuit, who went as a missionary among the Huron Indians in 1636. Being captured by the Mohawks, he escaped to New Amsterdam, where he wrote his description of the New Nether- lands. Later he voluntarily returned to the Mohawks and was killed as a worker of bad magic. His writings may be found in the publi- cations of the New York Historical Society. 2 An English traveler who left his comments in ' ' Travels through the Middle Settlements in North America, in the Years 1759 and 1760." It was first published in London in 1775. 3 There is a life of Jonathan Edwards in the American Religious Leaders series. A larger book is "D wight's Life of President Edwards. ' ' He was for almost twenty-five years pastor at North- ampton, Massachusetts. Soon after accepting the presidency of Princeton college, he died of inoculation for the smallpox. 50 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE mental excitement, but ascribed them to a personal devil agonizing the body in leaving it. Books were few, religious papers almost unknown, and the congre- gation depended on its x)i*eacher for aid and instruc- tion. It was the day of powerful preaching. When Jonathan Edwards preached his sermon at Enfield, Connecticut, on " Sinners in the hands of an angry God," an eye-witness said that sinners actually clung to the pillars supporting the gallery to keep themselves ■ ........ Ir POEM, f On the DEATH of that celcbr.ucJ Divine, a-sd cumcnt Servant of JEbUS CHWST, \hc lite R;. c.-c:^ ', ^ GEORGE WHITEFIELD. HKADING ON FUXERAL STANZAS from falling into the pit so vividly described by the preacher. So great became the lamentations of the convicted ones, that the speaker was obliged to re- quest them to make less noise that he miglit be heard. Whitefield, of whom David Garrick, the play actor, said that lie could pronounce "Mesopotamia" in a way to bring tears to Garrick' s eyes, found a ready hearing for his remarkable preaching when he made LIFE IN THE ENGLISH COLONIES IN AMERICA 51 his several missionary visits to America. Franklin found it impossible to resist his collection plate/ A place of preaching was built for him in Philadelphia, and when he died in Newburyport, Massachusetts, an unusual number of the customary funeral stanzas was printed and sold. The church was the common meeting place. Whether in the solemn New England church or in the less reserved "established church " of the south, the religious gatherings gave almost the only oppor- tunity in those lonely days of exchanging a bit of conversation. The church and state were united in all save Rhode Island and Pennsylvania. The first rep- resentative body in America met in the church at Jamestown, Virginia. In New England it was not uncommon to hold the town meeting in the church. Since the church and state were united, the state used the church to prepare men for the next world. Thus the right to cast out heretics was assumed and so arose the religious persecution all too common in colonial days. The horizon of life was purely local. Funerals furnished a kind of melancholy entertainment. Unusual interest was attached to executions and the ^In his different "Journals" Wliitefield has described the inci- dents connected with his journeys as missionary preacher through the colonies and his efforts to maintain an orphan house in Georgia. His connection with tlie " Wesley movement "' caused many of the churches of the middle colonies to be closed against him. Franklin, who did not attend the regular churches, went to hear Wliitefield, id in his Autobiography tells how the persuasive power of the reat preacher caused him to exchange the small coin lie intended » give for a larger one, until when the plate was passed at the ose he could not help emptying the contents of his pocket into it. '^hittier's "The Preacher" contrasts Edwards with Wliitefield. 52 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE death penalty was prescribed for many offenses now lightly punished. If colonial laws were in force at the present time probably about one-half the convicted criminals would be executed. Therefore executions were as common then as now, although the popula- tion has increased seventy-fold. The ceremony was intended as a warning a n d w a s public. Handbills were struck by the print- er and sold through the crowd, de- jDicting the crime or the fate of the criminal and Solemn Farewell to LEFI AMES, Being a POEM written a few Days before his E X E C U T I O N. for Burglary, OB. 21, 177^ AX KXKcrnox haxdiui.l warning others. Sometimes the accompanying verses were supposed to be written by the criminal and taught a moral lesson.^ ^ Two stanzas in one of these handbills on the execution of Levi Ames read: See! round the Prison how the Throns From every Quartet pour; Some mourn with sympathising Tongue! The ruder Rabble roar. Slow rolls the Cart with solemn Pace, The Ladder shows on higli; See the poor pinion'd Prisoner pass On to Eternity. 1.IFE IN THE ENGLISH COLONIES IN AMERICA 53 Occasionally another kind of amusement appeared in a band of concert singers ^ or strolling actors who came from England to appear in the theaters of the south and in New York. They were frowned upon in Puritan New England and Quaker Philadelphia. ^ "Othello," ^'Richard III.," and other Shakespearean -^ MUSEUM & WAX-WORK , At the EXCHANGE, NEW-YORK, i HKAT) (iK A MI'SEUM ANNOUNCEMENT plays were produced. Exhibition was also made of collections of seaweed and shells from the Orient; or a ''Great Sarpeant;" and "a Creature called a JAPANESE (possibly a chimpanzee) of about 2 feet high, his body resembling a human Bo dy in all Parts lA handbill preserved in the Pennsylvania Historical Society rooms announces a series of concerts by "a foreign musician m a private house. Chairs will be placed for the ladies and benches f or the gentlemen. "Decency, good Manners and silence shall at all timel be regarded " Nine performances were to be given foi a guinea. The performer solicits the loan of new imisic. 2There was no theater built in Boston until 1-93 Pla5S^^ele given under the name of " Moral lectures,' and the playhouse was called a New Exhibition Eoom. Even then it came near being pulled down by a mob. Barnard's "Travels m America gives an interesting program of "Othello" presented as a "moral lectuie. 54 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE except Feet and Tail." He is promised to perform "various Actions to Admiration,, such as walking upon a Line, hanging and swinging under it, exercis- ing the Fire lock, dances to any Tune, and sundry other Things too tedious to mention." Museums were a legitimate form of amusement and were well patronized. A distinct difference was recognized in the southern colonies between the rich planters and the poor class of small landholders. In Pennsylvania the Quakers made up a flourishing commercial community entirely distinct from the Germans and Scotch-Irish. New York aristocracy was composed of the old Dutch families and of English traders, many of whom had come out with the expectation of returning to Eng- land after a fortune had been acquired. They had to compete in business with the shrewd Dutch mer- chants, but enjoyed such advantages that they gave a distinctly Tory cast to the city of New York in early Revolutionary times. Social classes were less known in "levelling" New England, but one need only note the fine colonial houses to feel that all could not afford to have them and that there must have been distinctions. Social classes have decreased rather than increased since colonial days.^ Fortunes were small. John Adams ^ thought Charles ^ Historical verification of this statement is not wanting. In many of the early churches seats were assigned according to rank. The early catalogues of Harvard college show the students' names not in the alphabetical order as is now the custom, but according to the rank of the parents. Washington had liis coat of arms on his coach and on the harness of his horses as did all the gentlemen of Virginia. ^See John Adams's Works, vol. II., p. 380. LIFE IN THE ENGLISH COLONIES IN AMERICA 55 Carroll of Carrollton, Maryland, a man of the first fortune in America, with an income of £14,000 and the expectations from his father's vast estate. George Washington, with almost seventy-five thousand acres of land which he had inherited and had gained by his marriage,^ was perhaps the next richest man. Strict attention to dress was paid among the wealthier class, especially in the south. Clothing was ordered from England, and the colonists some- times complained that the English merchants kept their most fashionable goods for the home market and sent over to the colonies "fashions suited to our grand parents." Books were not kept in stock but, upon the arrival of a ship, merchants announced in the newspapers the titles of such books as she had brought over. Only a wealthy gentleman like Lewis Morris, of Morrisania, near New York, sometime governor of New Jersey, could afford to send to his London bookseller for long lists of books, "lettered and guilt as usual." Benjamin Franklin could not be considered among the wealthy citizens of Philadelphia, but the follow- ing advertisement which appeared in his paper in 1 Washington had inherited from his half-brother, Lawrence twenty-five hundred acres on the Potomac, inchuhng the seat ot Mount Vernon. From the bounty lands for services m the Indian wars, he had earned and bought up some fifty thousand more. Mrs^ Custis brought to him under the colonial laws fifteen thousand acres, between two and three hundred negroes, and eight to ten thousand pounds in bond. The death of Martha Custis the daughter of Mrs Washington, added ten thousand pounds to Washington s fortune. It had reverted to Mrs. Washington and by Virginia law to the husband. 56 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE 1750 indicates that his wife, Deborah, was not meanly gowned : Whereas on Saturday night last, the house of Benjamin Frank- lin, of this city, printer, was broken open, and the following things feloniously taken away, viz., a double neck-lace of gold beads, a woman's long scarlet cloak, almost new, with a double cape, a woman's gown, of printed cotton, of the sort called brocade print, very remarkable, the ground dark, with large red roses, and other large red and yellow flowers, with blue in some of the flowers, and smaller blue and white flowers, with many green leaves ; a pair of woman's stays, covered with white tabby before, and dove-colour 'd tabby behind, with two large steel hooks, and sundry other goods. Travel by land or water was a hardship. When Benjamin Franklin ran away from his brother's printing office in 1723, he was three days sailing in the sloop from Boston to New York. Between New York and Philadelphia the small boat in which he had taken passage to Amboy w^as caught in a squall and he was thirty hours without food and water. He next walked fifty miles to Burlington, and afterwards spent a night on the Delaware when rowing down to Philadelphia. Travelers with plenty of money fared but little better. Packets sailed only at intervals between Boston and New York, New York and Phila- delphia, and between Philadelphia and Charleston. On some of the rivers, sailing vessels passed but twice per w^eek. It required usually about six days to go from New York to Albany. Land travel was developed slowly since roads had to be made and ferries or fords provided. It was 133 years after tlie landing on Plymouth Rock before a stage ran regularly between New York and Phila- delphia. Prince's Vade Mecum in 1730 describes LIFE IN THE ENGLISH COLONIES IN AMERICA 57 eight roads by which one might reach different parts of New England as far north as Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and west to New York— 390 miles. Directions were also given for a route from New York to Philadelphia, ninety-seven miles, and thence to the James River, in Virginia — 343 miles. The author pathetically adds : " If any gentlemen in the Southern >' .- S-1 r. .^-iW be perfcrm- to Pfiilau<*l- plua, m iae f. eieau'a v.2^- ^'on i'titij . . -"^ Saturday m<..r., ' ' ^^ f>'cK»ck oa ^i,g , v,'ig^:->n, which pro- f-^rr from B{upfwi"k Mr, rjjp, '1^ on evfry Moa^ »y aad. Xiiur : i s. r%- ^ , ■". ' ^i in ^ i<::'i'">n Mr, fah'ji B\rii--i ADVERTISEMENT OF STAGE (FROM A PHILADELPHIA NEWSPAPER) Provinces will Please to send to the Publishers an exact Account of the several Counties, Towns, Courts, Fairs, Eoads, &c., in their several Governments; they shall be very gratefully received and added to this Composure." The inns along the roads were few and entirely inadequate when several travelers chanced to meet. 58 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE Visitors from Europe pronounced them "wretched beyond description." When Silas Deane^ and his fellow delegates went down to the Continental Con- gress in 1774, they found "no fruit, bad rum, and nothing of the meat kind but salt pork. " At another tavern, they had to go out and " knock over" three or four chickens to be roasted for their dinner. No porter was to be had at another inn and the only palatable drink was some "bottle-cyder." Some- times dangerous fords had to be crossed in journeys. Ferries were established by private enterprise over the larger streams, but travelers were frequently delayed by high winds which made crossing impos- sible. ,-— Travelers were rare, yet they afforded the only means of securing the news. This desire for the latest information was sometimes attributed to idle curiosity. Burnaby tells a story he heard about Franklin : I was told of a gentleman of Philadelphia, who, in traveling through the provinces of New England, having met with many im- pertinences, from this extraordinary turn of character, at length fell upon an expedient almost as extraordinary, to get rid of them. He had observed, when he w^ent into an ordinary, that every indi- vidual of the family had a question or two to propose to him, rela- tive to his history ; and that, till each was satisfied, and they had conferred and compared together their information, there was no possibility of procuring any refreshment. He, therefore, the moment he went into any of these places, inquired for the master, the mistress, the sons, the daughters, the men-servants, and the maid-servants ; and having assembled them all together, he began in this manner: "Worthy people, I am B. F. of Philadelphia, by trade a , and a bachelor; I have some relations at Boston, to ^ The Deane Papers are published by the New York Historical Society. LIFE IN THE ENGLISH COLONIES IN AMERICA 59 whom I am going to make a visit ; my stay will be short, and I shall then return and follow my business, as a prudent man ought to do. This is all I know of myself, and all I can possibly inform you of ; I beg therefore that you will have pity upon me and my horse, and give us both some refreshment." John Adams ^ in liis diary gives one experience : 12. Thursday afternoon, 3 o'clock. Got into my desobligeant, to go home. Two or three miles out of town I overtook two men on horseback; they rode sometimes before me, then would fall behind, and seemed a little unsteady ; at last one of them came up. "What is your name'?"' "Why ; of what consequence is it what my name is?" "Why," says he, "only as we are traveling the road together, I wanted to know where you came from, and what your name was." I told him my name. "Where did you come from?" "Boston." "Where have you been ?" "To Falmouth." " Upon a frolic, I suppose?" " No, upon business." " What business, pray? " "Business at court." Thus far I humored his impertinence. "Well, now," says he, " do you want to know my name?" "Yes." " My name is Robert Jordan; I belong to Cape Elizabeth, and am now going round there. My forefathers came over here and settled a great many years ago." After a good deal more of this harmless impertinence, he turned off and left me. ^From John Adams's Works, vol. II., p. 246. CHAPTER V LIFE IN THE ENGLISH COLONIES IN AMERICA— (CON- TINUED) Newspapers had not yet assumed importance as disseminators of news. When the Revolution broke out there were only thirty-seven newspapers in the American colonies, and no dailies. Massachusetts had seven, New York three, and Pennsylvania eight. They were not much larger than a large pamphlet page of the present day, and of four pages only. The editor wrote the advertisements and made a tour of the docks and coffee houses to get such newspapers as might be brought in. From these he made up his paper, printing the news from each place under the date when the paper from which the clipping was taken had been issued. * ' Broadsides ' ' or extra sheets were frequently printed and distributed as extras or sold on the streets. For instance, when a procession in Phila- delphia carted an image of the two-faced Benedict Arnold through the streets, accompanied by the devil, and cast the whole into a bon-fire, a *' broad- side" was issued, giving a rude reiDresentation of the scene. The latest news from Europe which the New York Weekly Post Boy, of February 25, 1750, could find was just four months old ; that from Charlestown one month ; Philadelphia one week, and from Boston 60 LIFE IN THE ENGLISH COLONIES IN AMERICA «1 three weeks old. The class of news illustrates the simple life of the people. From Charlestown came, nine lines on a "violent storm of wind." Boston contributed sixteen lines on a ''most violent Storm. The Rain descended and the Floods came in a most shocking Manner. " From the same place appeared a story in four lines of a child falling into a cellar, four lines on a Captain Benjamin Blany thrown from his horse, and eight lines on the drowning of two sailors. Fa representation of the FIGURES exhibited and paraded tl.n.ugh the Streets of Vi ' the 30/,^ of Septemier --"- FROM A "BROADSIDE Philadelphia contributed three lines on the execu- tion of three men for housebreaking and the reprieve of a fourth ; four lines on a man and his wife arrested in Chester for robbery; four lines on a "violent N.E. storm." New York itself offered twenty-eight lines on the capture of a woman thief who had been arrested a few weeks before "and would have been burnt in the Hand but was begg'd off." Two small notes of a man struck by lightning and a sloop wrecked, together with the entries at the New York and the Philadelphia custom houses complete the 62 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE domestic news. It makes a total of one and one half columns. The foreign news of the same issue occu- pies just twice as much space. Houses and lands for sale or rent furnish the bulk of the three and one-half columns of advertisements in this issue. Four merchants announce the arrival of cargoes of merchandise of various kinds from the old world or the Indies. A curious advertisement reads : The publick WHIPPER of the City of NEW YORK being lately dead ; if any Person inclines to accept that office with TWENTY POUNDS a Year, he may apply to the Mayor, and be entered. As a religious duty, Massachusetts and Connecticut had early {^"Jeremiah Mori arty, now teaching "-^ dance in Mr. (^icfhay's- hr)iilo on SS',>cka--Hill, will nilo fc;:< h tiiruC" (.fihe CU.OBKS. / .) /.. v n r n tkacher's advertisement formed an in- cipient public school system for the educa- tion of poor children. But in no other col- ony was there such a general attempt before the Revolution. There were many schools but they were privately supported and were organized wherever a sufficient number of scholars could be obtained. Early newspapers contain advertisements of teachers. In 1750 in New York there was "Thomas Jolmson living opposite the watch- house, who teaches Reading, Writing, and Aritli- metick, &c." Also "there is a Person at Mr. James Mills's . . . who teaches the new Italian Method LIFE IN THE ENGLISH COLONIES IN AMERICA 63 of Bookkeeping and a new invented Short Hand." One could study Latin of "a man lately come to town who keeps at Scotch Jonny's, upon the Dock." The announcement of Anne Stockton shows the straits to which a teacher was put in early times to gain a livelihood : ANNE STOCKTON, who lately advertised to keep an Ordi- nar3% has declined, and is advised to teach young Ladies to sew and embroider, and Millenary. Any Gentlemen or Ladies that have any Misses to send her, may depend that due Care will be taken in teaching them: She likewise takes in plain Work, and dresses Head Clothes after the newest Fashion ; and young Ladies boarded, by ANNE STOCKTON. Paper was scarce and the printer was often puzzled to get his matter into condensed space. To this scarcity of paper is due the variety of sizes and tints shown in a file of colonial papers. The margin was often used for adver-r tisements, t generally of slaves to be sold. Adver- I tisements \ were some- I times al- lowed to accumulate and issued as a supplement. Cuts were confined to little square representations of runaway servants and slaves who sometimes carried off the master's horse, thereby deserving the gallows. The printer's office was a kind of colonial clearing- 64 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE house. Many of the advertisements closed with — "Inquire of the printer." He had to circulate his papers and therefore was early identified with the carrying of mail and with the post-ofHce. A printer of Boston was also postmaster as early as 1654, but the old ]3ractice of using travelers as postboys for short distances and taverns as post-offices continued a century after. In rural Virginia, where there were no printers, a mail bag was sent from plantation to plantation, each planter taking out his mail and being required by law to pass the bag to the next. It was quite common for a postmaster-editor to refuse to cir- culate the rival papers of his city, but Benjamin Franklin, who, as editor of the Pennsylvania Gazette, was made postmaster of IMiiladelphia in 1737, de- clared it a mean practice and one Avhich he would not follow. Franklin showed such organizing ability as postmaster that in 1753 he was made one of two joint deputy postmasters-general for America, with a joint salary of six hundred pounds, if so much could be cleared above expenses. The post-office soon became a paying institution, notwithstanding the additional expense of the reforms which Franklin instituted. It had been a common practice to send forward a mail only when sufficient matter had accumulated to make the journey profit- able to the carriers, who rode on horseback. Frank- lin formed a regular system of officers and carriers, with a schedule of postage averaging a penny for about thirty miles. He required subscribers to pay for having newspapers carried, originated the adver- tising of uncalled-for letters, straightened post roads LIFE IN THE ENGLISH COLONIES IN AMERICA 65 md increased the Philadelphia-New York mail to three imes per week in summer and once per week in vinter. In 1755 the British government assumed a monopoly on the carrying of letters from England to the West Indian and the American colonies. Such letters must be prepaid at the rate of one shilling for each quarter of an ounce. They were despatched by fast packets which sailed once a month from Fal- mouth to New York. Franklin continued to hold his office until the Revo- lution broke L O N D The out ;/9' to Joa; Ship Prince WILLUM, , JcJm Mi f civil, UAlcx^\ Oee Half of her Lcadi.i; is a/- \ ready en gaged, and ft: i<.id fail -n:rlh all corfvcnie^t Spctd. For F.- fight or Pajfagtt ^'f I PL J A M K ; , or [aid hiafir. but even then the line of posts ex- tended only from New H a m p shire to Charles- ton, South Carolina, and in no place penetrated the interior of the continent one hundred miles. That vast region was as yet a sealed book. Throughout the colonies generally the ruling class was made up of Englishmen, since they were under the control of England. Hence the forms of self-govern- ment which they set up were largely local adaptations of forms existing in the mother country. Much of the local government was in crude hands and it was not always well administered. Time was lacking in which to train statesmen. Thomas Jefferson, a most careful although youth- ful observer, sent to John Page in 1766 the following 6Q THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE description ^ of a colonial legislature sitting at An- napolis : But I will now give you some account of what I have seen in this metropolis, the assembly happens to be sitting at this time, their upper and lower house, as they call them, sit in different houses. I went into the lower, sitting in an old courthouse, which, judging from its form and appearance, was built in the year one. I was surprised on approaching to hear as great a noise and hubbub as you will usually observe at a publick meeting of the planters in Virginia, the first object which struck me after my entrance was the figure of a little old man dressed but indifferently, with a yel- low queue wig on, and mounted in the judge's chair, this the gentleman who walked with me informed me was the speaker, a man of very fair character, but who by the eye, has very little the air of a speaker, at one end of the justice's bench stood a man whom in another place I should from his dress and phis have taken for Goodall the lawyer in Williamsburg, reading a bill then before the house with a school boy tone and an abrupt pause at every half dozen words, this I found to be the clerk of the assembly, the mob (for such was their appearance) sat covered on the justices' and lawyers' benches, and were divided into little clubs amusing themselves in the common chit chat way. I was surprised to see them address the speaker without rising from their seats, and three, four and five at a time without being checked, when a motion was made, the speaker instead of putting the question in the usual form, only asked the gentlemen whether they chose that such or such a thing should be done, and was answered by a yes sir, or no sir; and tho' the voices appeared to be divided they never would go to the trouble of dividing the house, but the clerk entered the resolutions, I supposed, as he thought proper, in short every thing seems to be carried without the house in general's knowing what was proposed. I shall proceed tomorrow to Philadelphia where I shall make the stay necessary for inoculation. . . .- ^ In a letter owned by the Lenox Library, New York City. 2 Al)out the time that Lady Mary Wortley Montagu introduced inoculation for smallpox into England, 1721, the Rev. Cotton Mather described the process used in the east to Dr. Zabdiel Boylston of Boston. Much to the liorror of the Boston people, the doctor inoculated his own child of six years, and two servants. Tlie suc- cess of the experiment caused the practice to grow rapidly until "classes" were formed in many places for the necessary isolatioiL LIFE IN THE ENGLISH COLONIES IN AMERICA 67 Cities were small. Probably not more than one- twentieth of the people lived in cities of eight thou- sand or over. Now such cities embrace one-third the total population. New York was in 1760 only about a mile long and a half-mile wide. Water had to be brought in casks from the springs or wells above town and was peddled about the streets. Philadelphia extended a mile along the river and but a few blocks back. Boston was clustered about the three hills on her peninsula. Annapolis was the most elegant city. Charleston was gay during its "season" when the Carolinian planters came in with their families, but correspondingly dull when they returned to their plantations. Williamsburg, the capital of Virginia, with a fixed population of not much above one thousand, was the most stylish place on the continent during the sessions of the legislature. Town-officers included fire-wards, fence viewers, sealers of leather, informers of deer, cullers of staves, hog-reeves, haywards, scavengers, assay masters, keepers of the granary, and surveyors of the highways. The houses were poorly built and close together. Disastrous fires frequently occurred and fire com- panies were organized to respond to the alarm of the fire-ward. In 1752, the members of Hibernia fire company of Philadelphia promised to keep at hand " two leathern buckets, one large wicker basket with two handles, and one bag made of good oznaburgs or wider linen, containing four yards at least, furnished with a running string, fixed in the mouth thereof." When a cry of fire was heard in the night each member was to place two or more lights in his 68 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE windows, or if his house was in danger, in every room to render easy the removal of his property, and to report for duty at every alarm with the bag, basket, and buckets/ Lotteries formed a recognized means of raising money. The practice had been inherited from Eng- land and was not considered wrong. It was used to build churches, to aid the deserving poor, to pave streets, to erect lighthouses, college buildings, canals, and bridges. In this way Faneuil Hall was rebuilt after its destruction by fire, and a battery was con- structed by a lottery for the defense of Philadelphia after the Quakers had defeated an appropriation of public funds for such a warlike purpose. ^ Several of these agreements of voluntary fire companies are preserved in the Pennsylvania Historical Society Museum. CHAPTER VI THE FRENCH-ENGLISH STRUGGLE FOR THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY The chance allotment of territory among the Spanish, French and English has been described. With the expansion of their colonies a conflict would come. Rumors of the richness of the Mississippi valley soon crossed the mountains to the English. They argued that right of discovery on the coast ex- tended for the same width into the interior. Several of the royal governors had called the attention of the administration in England to the desirability of asserting their title and taking possession of the inland region before the French could do so. Governor Spots wood, of Virginia, even attempted such an expedition in 1716. Accompanied by gentle- men of Virginia, Avith rangers, Indians, pioneers, and servants, he set out for the west much as a feudal lord would have done in olden England. The com- pany ascended the Rappahannock to the source of one of its branches, named a peak Mount Georgia in honor of King George I. and descended to the Shen- andoah. Ascending the northern fork of that stream, the expedition reached possibly what is now Pendle- ton county, West Virginia. The govei'nor had brought " graying tools" in order to carve his king's title to the region, but the rock proved too hard and he contented himself with Inirying a bottle containing 69 70 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE the claims of the English. In eleven different kinds of liquor he and his party drank the health of the king, and returned to Williamsburg, having been absent the latter half of August and the first half of September. The governor perpetuated the memory of the unusual and interesting adven- ture by presenting each gentleman with a g o 1 d e n horseshoe and h i m of the Tramontane order. ^ Nothing came immediately of this attempt to take possession of the ' ' back coun- ■mM^H dubbing Knig h t -v-v try," as the region was called. It was the frontier, the lurking place of the hostile Indian. The colonists were greatly interested in the habits of these natives as far as tlic^y could be POWHATAN , ^ , Hc\l this/rate cL fdlUcn vjhai C.J/'C-^nu^_^*^^ -uvi5 dJiucrcdtc him pn/ciiiT X^>*n jBoy X^ i POWHATAN'S COURT. (FROM AX OLD MAP OF VIRGINIA) 1 Dr. William A. Carriithers, a Virginia novelist, founded on this incident his "Knights of the Horse-Shoe."' Horses were not so generally or so rouglily shod in the tide- water region as was neces- sary for this mountain travel. Hence the emblem selected for the Order. THE FRENCH-ENGLISH STRUGGLE 71 inYestigated. Indeed this interest was not confined to the colonies. Drawings were made of Indian cere- monials and reproduced in England. Learned men who came from that country and missionaries who went among the Indians tried to identify them with the lost tribe of Israel, by comparing their ceremonies with those prescribed in the book of Leviticus. There was a rumor that certain tribes s^Doke Welsh and must have crossed from Wales in some way. But from whatever source he came, the Indian was inclined to dispute the advance of tlie white man. The latter was too wily for the savage. Witness the famous purchase of the "three days' walk."^ For many years the English were employed in filling the coast plain, engaging in ocean commerce and agriculture, building up a hardy race and uncon- sciously prex^aring for their first westward expansion. But when the growth of internal trade called atten- tion to the trans-mountain region, they found the 1 In 1682, William Penn bargained with the Indians for a tract of land extending back from the Schuylkill as far as could be reached in a walk of three days. This was the savage method of measure- ment. He and the Indians started, but after walking one-half the allotted time, Penn grew fatigued and a temporary boundary was erected from which the walk was to be completed. Fifty years afterward, Penn having died in the meantime, his heirs met the Indians at the temporary boundary to complete the walk. But instead of the party walking together by known paths, the white men had hired three skilled walkers, who started by the compass, notwithstanding the protests of the Indians. In the allotted one and one-half d.ays, these pedestrians covered eiglity-six miles, although one of them died afterward from the effects. When a party subsequently went over the ground, it required four days. It was owing to this trick that the Indian wars in Pennsylvania first began and the good results of Friend William Penn's fair dealing were lost. See Egle's "History of Pennsylvania," page 442. 72 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE savage not only in the way, but allied with their life- long enemy, the French. In this race for the western valley, the French had an immense advantage. Communication is abso- lutely essential between the different parts of any possession, and the interior waterways furnished the French with lines of communication. The St. Law- rence tapped the Great Lakes and they in turn brought the trader almost to the headwaters of the Mississippi. France was pre-eminently Roman Cath- olic and an ardent propagandist. The missionary accompanied the trader and sometimes preceded him. It was not long until the adventurous journeys of Joliet, Marquette, La Salle, and Hennepin had given France some kind of a claim to the Mississippi valley. Bancroft, the historian, makes a ratio in which the Fi'encli x^ossessed twenty parts out of twenty-five on the North American continent, leaving the Spanish but four and the English only one part. In occupying this claim, the numerous indentations of the lakes and the tributaries of the great rivers furnished a variety of routes to the French. One of the favorite roads of tlie traders lay up the Ottawa river from Montreal ; by portage to Lake Nipissing, an eastern arm of Lake Huron ; thence around to Green Bay and by portage to the Wisconsin and Mis- sissippi rivers. If the traveler turned to the south on Lake Michigan, an easy portage was found from the head of the Cliicago river to the Desplaines and Illinois rivers ; or on the southeast shore by the St. Joseph and Kankakee rivers. Another route lay up the St. Lawrence, over Lakes Ontario and Erie and THE FRENCH-ENGLISH STRUGGLE 73 thence by one of the many portages to the Ohio river/ By the use of these great waterways the French had completely surrounded the English. The cities of Quebec and New Orleans, the commercial ends of the two great rivers, afforded them the command of all trade thereon. While their canoes were being driven rapidly over their waterways into the west, tlie English could but stare stupidly at the great Appalachian mountain chain which blocked all attempts to compete with their more fortunate neigh- bors. Not a navigable river of the plain touched the mountains. The Potomac and the Susquehanna ex- tended in that direction, but their courses were broken by frequent shoals and rapids. Some wagon roads had been roughly constructed, but the necessity for coastwise communication had i)i'evented their being built toward the west. In some regions the low lands bordering small lakes were filled with a mass of tangled undergrowth and briars through which it was impossible to make a way. But Saxon pluck was bound to win in the end against Gallic courage. The very ease with which the French took possession of the west proved their undoing. They spread rapidly, but temporarily. They were satisfied with the gain afforded by trading ^ The student may find an interesting field of investigation in these historic portages. The portage was only the means to an end. Therefore scarcely a city is located on an old portage but there is a city at the mouth of every river leading from or to one. There is a Portage river and county in Ohio and a Portage covmtj^ in Indiana. Portage townships and villages are in Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin, and New York. For Wisconsin see Thwaite's " Historic Waterways.'' 74 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE and with a small share of the hunting. This did not interfere Avith tlie natural pursuits of the Indians, and they rapidly became the friends and allies of the French. The English advanced slowly, but took per- manent possession. They felled the trees, cleared the ground, cultivated the fields and developed indus- tries. Every waterfall Avas harnessed to a mill ; at every j^ortage a village began ; and at the head of navigation on every stream an incipient city arose. The destroyed forests and the cultivated fields ex- tending down to the water's edge soon interfered with the hunting and fishing of the Indian. If he fol- lowed the chase out into the field, the enraged set- tler punished him for destroying his crops. Small wonder that all the arts of the English were required to keep peace with the redskin. As a result of this steady advance pure English blood at last reached the mountains, to meet the French wandering trapper and the half-breed. Fronting the line of forts which the French had constructed from Quebec to New Or- leans was a line of English homes. ^^ The war was likely to be precipitated at some com- mon point and this proved to be the upper Ohio. The French regarded tlie Mississippi valley as em- bracing all the waters tributary thereto. In 1749 Celeron de Bienville had gone down the Ohio, and ^ On a " New Map of North America showing the Advantages obtained therein to England by the Peace," printed in England in 1763, one may trace the line of French forts from Quebec to Florida. They include Richelieu. Sorel, La Galette, Frontenac, Toronto, Niagara, Du Quesne, Sandoski, Utawas, St. Ignace, Ponchartrain, St. Joseph, Le Rocher, Chartres, Stacjuado, Toulouse, Rosalie, Mobile, St. Rosa, St. Marks, Picolato, and Diego. THE FRENCH-ENGLISH STRUGGLE 75 at intervals had buried six leaden plates indicating the title of the French to the land.^ Now the junction of the two rivers forming the Ohio was one of the great strategic points. It competed wdth the Cum- berland Gap for the title of gateway of the west. The charter limits of both Pennsylvania and Virginia extended beyond it. Therefore when the French began to plant forts in that region, the English governor of Vir- ginia promptly sent young George Washington as a messenger to warn them that they were trespass- ing. War in America would probably have arisen even if the home countries of the two nations had not oxK OK cK.oKox'H P..X.S choscn to mako war upon each other. The three periods of the French-English war (extending as a whole from 1690 to 1763) are reflexes of the old world contests ; but the last (1753 to 1763) commonly called the French-Indian war, was a struggle for the western lands iii America. It was an unavoidable friction in 1 His name is sometimes written Celeron. The plate here repre- sented is in the possession of the American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, Massachusetts. 76 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE tlie allotment of empire. For ten years the war went on at intervals, until in the sx)ring of 1763 the king's proclamation was read from the balcony of the State House in Boston and at Fort George in New York city, declaring that the French had signed away all right to every foot of land on the continent of North America. Even the Floridas, which France held in one of the many adjustments between Spain and her, were now turned over to the victorious Eng- lish. Spain was mistress from the Isthmus of Pan- ama to the MississiiDi^i ; England from that river to the Atlantic Ocean. The dream of a French colonial empire had passed away, to be revived only in the fertile brain of Napoleon. The gentlemen in various places assembled in con- gratidatory dinners, and the newspapers printed poems on the victory. At the March town meeting in Boston, James Otis was chosen moderator and in his speech declared: "The British Dominion and Power may now be said, literally, to extend from Sea to Sea, and from the Great Rivers to the Ends of the Earth."' But the actual transfer of land was only a small portion of the fruit of these French-Indian wars. The resulting debt formed one of the grounds for the taxation of the colonies by the English Parliament and led to their revolt. The mingling of regular and provincial soldiery had robbed the former of some of their glory and made them less dreaded by the latter ; the incapacity of British commanders, who had been ^ The address is in the Boston Post Boy of March 21, 1763. THE FRENCH-ENGLISH STRUGGLE 77 trained on the fields of Europe, was painfully mani- fest in Braddock's defeat. In contrast, the war had brought out the military talents of several young men, the most brilliant being George Washington, who had risen to a lieutenant-colonelcy in the Virginia line,^ Perhaps the hardshij)s of his early trip to warn the French to leave the Ohio, and his surrender to a suj^erior force of them on a subsequent expedition, gave him a more suitable training than a European military school would have done. It was quite likely that the necessity for " doing things" in a new land would prove equal to the theoretical training of the old world. Here was but a forecast of the future. Colonial life was compelling self-help and begetting self-reliance. Intelligent action might in the future be 23itted against apparently superior training. This was to prove true not only in the Revolutionary war, which the colonies now had to face, but in their later contests as well. ^ It is not without significance that four generals of the Revolu- tionary war saw service on Braddock's campaign: Washington, Gates, Charles Lee, and Stephen. CHAPTER VII NATIONAL BOUNDARIES AND THE PUBLIC DOMAIN All through the Revolutionary war the Americans had one thought in mind — independence. An inde- pendent government implies possession of land. How much of the continent should be included in the inde- pendent United States? Fortunately this question had been largely predetermined by the ante-Revolu- tionary boundaries. When the king of England, after the peace of 1763, found himself in possession of all of the continent east of the Mississippi, he knew that he could not make uniform English colonies of such divergent elements, and therefore he had created the province of Quebec to include the French people of the northern regions, and the territories of East and West Florida to cover the Spanish people in the south. The Eng- lish speaking colonies between were permitted to retain their boundaries, save that all the land lying beyond the sources of rivers which flowed into the Atlantic was erected into an Indian hunting-ground in which no grant of lands to settlers must be made. Whether the king wished to keep the Indians friendly by preventing the whites from encroaching on them, or whether he appreciated and felt compelled to check the growing power of the colonists, is uncertain. When the war against the king was begun the colo- nists were determined to ignore his decree and claim 78 NATIONAL BOUNDARIES AND THE PUBLIC DOMAIN 79 to the MississipiDi, which was the western limit of English dominion. They were not to be shaken in this resolution by any argument based on the " Quebec Act," by which the Parliament in 1774 had tried to extend the jDrovince of Quebec down over the land lying north- west of the Ohio river. They claimed that the action was simply coercive and the rising war had prevented it being put into execution. Moreover, England had fought a war to keej) the French out of that region. How could it now be claimed as a part of ancient Quebec ? Early in the Revolutionary war, George Rogers Clark, a Virginia surveyor, had gone to the Kentucky country and led its hardy settlers in the defense of their homes against the Indian allies of the British. Under the authority of Virginia, Clark had organized and headed an expedition into the territory northwest of the Ohio. It was peopled by the French, but had been in possession of the British since 1763. Over- coming apparently insurmountable obstacles in that little-traversed region, wading in the cold waters of the spring floods, breaking through the thin ice, liv- ing on scanty rations, Clark and his men ca^Dtured and recaptured Vincennes and the other forts and towns within the district, and held them until peace was declared. Thus the right of conquest added to the claims for territory which the American commis- sioners would present when overtures for peace and independence should commence. So strong indeed were the claims of the Americans t^ the Mississippi as a western boundary, that they 80 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE were not questioned when at last the unpopularity in England of the American war brought a crisis in I)olitics and made a further continuance of the con- test impossible. The boundary on the north was not so easily arranged. A northern boundary had been made necessary by the persistent refusal of the French Canadians to enter the rebellion, although invited in every way by the other colonies.^ It was stated in the House of Commons in debate that in the province of Quebec there were about 150,000 Roman Catholics to 360 adherents of the Church of England. These figures represented also the proportion of French to English. Differing thus in religion and race, it is perhaps fortunate that the Canadians did not enlist in the rebellion, since they must have proven a dis- tant and inharmonious element in the early making of the union. Lacking the Saxon training for self- government and the Saxon instinct for individual rights, they had not felt sorely the grievances under which the English speaking colonies smarted. After ^ It is an interesting study to note that, of all the British colonies in the West Indies and America, the rebellion was finally confined to a strip of the mainland extending from New Hampshire to Georgia. The "stamp act" had been disobeyed in many colonies, but all stopped at that save those in the limits mentioned above. In this light one may pardon the hope of the English speaking colonies that Canada would join them. Early in 1776 a commission was sent to Canada, consisting of Benjamin Franklin, who had been in France and could speak French; Charles Carroll, who had been educated in France and was a Roman Catholic; and Samuel Chase, of Maryland. Carroll's brother, afterward a bishop, accompanied the commission to administer to the Roman Catholics in Canada and to use his influence. The aged Franklin soon returned and nothing came of the attempt. Nevertheless in the Articles of Confederation, provision was made for admitting Canada when she should apply. NATIONAL BOUNDARIES AND THE PUBLIC DOMAIN 81 the revolution began to threaten, England soothed them by certain religious privileges. Between these French Canadians and the English speaking Americans, the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence river seemed to form a natural boundary. But the river could not be followed to its mouth since the Canadians had settled on each side of it. There- fore, on the forty-fifth parallel, the boundary line turned due east until it struck the watershed dividing the streams flowing into the St. Lawrence from those flowing into the Atlantic. Remembering that the waterways were the early highways, one may see how appropriate this line was. It had been the southern boundary of Quebec in 1763. Since the watershed ran too far east, the St. Croix was used thence to the ocean. Since the St. Lawrence and four of the Great Lakes lay between the two countries as neutral waters, it was provided that their navigation should be held jointly by Canada and the United States, although the line of actual jurisdiction was necessarily fixed. This has proven a most fortunate arrangement. For over one hundred years the commerce of the two countries has used these great waterways with com- paratively no friction, and has grown to enormous proportions under such a sensible agreement. ^ In later years two questions arose with England about this northern boundary line. On the northwest it was to run due west from the Lake of the Woods to the source of the Mississippi. The treaty-makers had been misinformed about the source of the Missis- sippi and the provisions could not be carried out. Also the name " St. Croix" was found to apply to several rivers in Maine. How- ever, both questions were amicably adjusted, the first in 1795 and the second in 1842. 82 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE Of the three boundaries that on the soutli caused the most trouble. During the progress of the war, many Americans had been led to question the dis- interested motives with Avhich France had aided them and also the assistance which Spain had given through France. Each nation would naturally be suspected of wanting: to regain a foothold east of the Missis- sippi. Therefore, whenever France and Spain sug- gested that the land lying south of the Ohio and west of the Alleghanies be kept as a neutral ground, the American commissioners offered serious objec- tions. Especially John Jay, who had been an Ameri- can agent in Spain, feared that it would not long remain neutral before being seized by the Spanish. However the Americans had no desire to extend their southern boundary over the Floridas peopled by French and Spaniards, and they made no objection when England turned them over to Spain as compen- sation for Gibraltar, still held by England. In the end, therefore, the United States extended intact from the Great Lakes to the Floridas, although the exact place where the latter began was uncertain.^ Little was known of the region beyond the Alleghar nies and it is doubtful whether the American com- missioners appreciated fully the prize which they had won. Certainly they did not appreciate the little use it would be without the control of the entire Mis- ^ Certain Canadian writers assert that Maine should have been given to Canada, since it projects like a wedge into their territor3^ compelling freight to pass through the United States or to be carried a long way around. The same objection could be raised to the Province of Ontario, which projects down between Lake Ontario and Lake Huron into the United States. Two of the great trunk railway lines from Chicago to the east pass through it. NATIONAL BOUNDARIES AND THE PUBLIC DOMAIN 83 sissippi river as an outlet for the products of the val- ley. Spain had been given the Floridas, and insisted upon thirty-two degrees and thirty minutes as tlie boundary line. Since the American boats passing t s s CONTlNExMTAL AND WEEKLY AD J O U R N A b E R T I S E R. T li U R S D A Y. April ;• , ;. ,,. - ,.cr:T\-".i BOSTON: P«iMTao by J O H S J ■ i !,, ^ S T O N, ArsiL 3. -* Gendcman inifncdiately i::.^i^;^i^^:K. below this point would be in ^S^ivLc^^^^'c Spanish territory, it was quite '';! Jf";''^:,'/*/ likely that Spain would soon prove a troublesome neighbor on the south. The news of the signing of the preliminaries of peace be- tween England and the United States, which ended the Revo- lutionary war, reached America ^ by Chevalier Duquesne, who landed in PhiladeljDhia March 24, 1783, being only thirty-six days out from Cadiz. Immediately the French minister, Luzerne, issued a proclamation from the press of the Pcnnsi/I- vania Packet and the glad, though not unex^Dected, news spread rapidly. Under a flag of truce, it was sent into New York, held by the British. Ten days 84 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE later it Avas printed in the Boston newspapers in large type. The territory on the eastern side of the mountains occupied by the thirteen original colonies had com- prised about 341,752 square miles. The territory between the mountains and the Mississippi which they had Avon in the Avar amounted to 488,248 square miles. It is not surprising that the question of OAAmership of this A^ast prize should haA^e been raised. NeAv Hampshire, Rhode Island, NeAv Jersey, Penn- sylvania, Maryland, and DelaAvare had fixed Avestern boundaries and Avere shut out from claiming any of this Avestern region. Massachusetts, Connecticut, NcAV York, Virginia, the Carolinas, and Georgia held claims to the region, because of the boundaries giA^en in their charters and by an Indian treaty.^ The states AA^hich had no such claims insisted that this AAXstern land, AA^hich had been bought by the common blood and treasure, should be held for the common benefit. EA^entually the states haA'ing these claims ceded them to the United States, and the federal government became OAAmer of this vast tract. The national goA^ernment might have held this land as subject territory and have treated its future inhabitants as colonists. Such indeed had been the custom in past history. But under the guiding hand of Thomas Jefferson, all that portion lying north and AA^est of the Ohio riA'er, a total of 265,878 square miles Avas erected into a temporary territory, AA'hose 1 These charters may be studied in Poore's "Constitutions and Charters of the United States. " Summaries of them are in Don- aldson's " Pubh'c Domain." NATIONAL BOUNDARIES AND THE PUBLIC DOMAIN 85 inhabitants were to enjoy the rights and privileges of the old states, with few exceptions. Further, even these exceptions were to be removed, and any por- tion erected into a state on a perfect equality with PROPOSED STATES FROM NORTHWEST TERRITORY the other states whenever a sufficient number of inhabitants should render such action advisable.^ ^ The exact words in the Ordinance of 1787 governing the North- west Territory are : "And whenever any of the said states shall have sixty thousand free inhabitants, therein, such state shall be admitted by its dele- gates into the Congress of the United States on an equal footing with the original states in all respects whatever." The draft of 1784 provided for states in the Territory according to parallels and natural boundaries. For them Jefferson proposed names as shown in the accompanying sketch map. 86 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE Such was the simple origin of the vast endowment of the United States, commonly known as " the pub- lic domain." It has been added to from time to time but has always been under the care and control of the central government and under the liberal rule first adopted. The inhabitants of section after section upon rea:ching the required nunil)er (GO, 000) have been admitted to statehood, until to the original thir- teen states there have been added tliirty-two. Four districts are still territories awaiting their time. The original thirteen' states embraced only 341,752 square miles. The states added to them, including the states yet to be made, contain 2,666,854 square miles. Thus the mother has been seven times sur- passed by the daughters. Yet these new states were not under the control of the old thirteen. They were not admitted to statehood by them, but by the national or federal government. Hence tliey pa}^ their allegiance to the real mother — the union. It is readily seen that the public domain has tlius come to be a great union-making element, although quite un- intentionally. The states originally owned and sur- rendered this land. But the predominance of their power has been dealt a deadly blow by the gift so be- stOAved. The story of the disorder, the rebellions, the gen- eral loss of the law-abiding sense, during tlie attempt at national government under the Articles of Confed- eration, has been told many times. ^ It was a result ^ John Fiske has fastened upon this period the name "The Crit- ical Period of American History," from his excellent book bearing that title. Professor McMaster, in the lirst volume of his " History NATIONAL BOUNDARIES AND THE PUBLIC DOMAIN 87 of tlie disorders of the Revolutionary war as well as the weakness of the frame of government. Yet we sometimes forget that in the midst of this " critical period," the much abused Continental Congress originated the great domain held for the good of the public, and set a pattern for the future expansion of the nation by the addition of new states from the vig- orous west. of the People of the United States, " describes the troubles of those days. CHAPTER VIII THE BEGINNINGS OF KENTUCKY AND TENNESSEE Distracted by such disorders, the people of the United States had no leisure after the Revolution in which to contemplate the vastness and richness of their first domain. Indeed, because of its vast extent much of it was unexj)lored and unknown. Fifteen hundred miles inland from the sea it extended. It occupied the fertile Atlantic coast plain, varying from fifty to three hundred miles in width. It crossed the wooded Alleghanies. It embraced the exceedingly fertile valleys of the Ohio, the Cumberland, the Ten- nessee, and their tributaries. It meant 830,000 square miles of possibility. But when the sentimental came down to the prac- tical, a great difficulty was foreseen in the lack of communication between the different parts. There were three great drainage basins — the Atlantic, the Great Lakes, and the Gulf. In each of these basins the waterways furnished almost a network of com- munication, but between the heads of the different streams were irritating portages or carrying-places. The courses of the streams were in many instances interru]3ted by falls and ra]3ids. Some of them during certain portions of the year were dried up or too low for transportation. Between the great drainage basins themselves were watersheds more or less difficult to pass. The THE BEGINNINGS OF KENTUCKY AND TENNESSEE 89 Alleghany mountains especially formed a vast bar- rier on the west of the Atlantic basin, with but one accessible way oyer them. This way had been found as a result of the first demand for western expansion and it had made the beginnings of Ken- tucky and Tennessee. The first traders from Virginia and Pennsylvania had learned from the Indians to go up the Potomac FIRST ROADS TO THE WKST river to the mouth of Wills Creek, where now stands Cumberland, Maryland. Thence they followed the trail over the intervening ridges to the Youghiogheny, down which they floated into the Monongahela and so into the Ohio. A trading company of tide-water Virginia gentlemen,^ among them the two half- 1 In 1748, Thomas Lee and twelve other persons in Virginia and Maryland organized the Ohio Company and were given five hundred thousand acres of land by the king. Two-fifths were to be located at once and to be free from any tax for ten years, provided one hun- dred families should be settled on the lands within seven years and defended by a fort and garrison. Two cargoes of goods suited to 90 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE brothers of George Washington, had secured from the king a grant of land between the Monongahela and the Ohio. They enlarged and improved the Wills Creek road, but were prevented from making their proposed settlements by the encroaching French. In 1754, Colonel George Washington, ^ of the Virginia militia, on an expedition against the French, tried to follow this road. He complained to the governor of Virginia : ' ' We have been two days making a bridge across the river (Youghiogheny) and have not done yet. . . . The great difficulty and labor that it requires to mend and alter the road prevent our marching above three or four miles a day."^ Gen- eral Braddock used the same road on his disastrous campaign, and henceforth it was known as Braddock 's road. Another road north of and parallel to the Braddock road had been made by the Forbes or Bouquet expedition against Fort Duquesne in 1758. It was called the Raystown road, from the farthest western settlement on it. Carlisle, Pennsylvania, was the rallying place for travel on each of these roads. From Carlisle to the junction of the rivers forming the Ohio, by the Rays- the Indian trade were imported, but the settlement was hindered by fear of the French and Indians. After only four years of actual existence the company disbanded, at considerable pecuniar}^ loss to its members. It was the forerunner of the "Walpole grant." See Sparks's '"Washington," vol. 11., page 478, and following. 1 George Washington was an adjutant general witli the rank of major in the Virginia militia wlien he was only nineteen. He was appointed to command a military expedition to the Oliio when lie was twenty-one. He was made lieutenant-colonel at twenty- two and commander-in-chief of tlie Virginia forces at twenty-three. He was forty-three when he accepted the command of the Amer- ican forces in the Revolutionary war witli tho rank of general. -From Sparks's "Washington." vol. II., page 15, THE BEGINNINGS OF KENTUCKY AND TENNESSEE 91 town road, was a distance of one hundred and jiinety- three miles over a way which was little more than a cleared path through the forests and across the moun- tains. The Wills Creek road had been much better made and was therefore usually chosen, although it was nineteen miles longer. Water travel also alleviated its hardships for no inconsiderable por- tion of the way. In thus using tlie Potomac river, the Virginians were simply taking advantage of the provision of mother Nature. It was the only stream on the At- lantic plain at all navigable whose head lay toward the western mountains. The Connecticut, the Hud- son, and the Delaware led toward the north. The Mohawk came from the west, but it was impeded by falls and its head lay in the lake region of central New York amidst an impenetrable growth of briars. The Susquehanna was shallow and full of rapids. Even had it been navigable, its western branch made but a tortuous route over the mountains. On the other hand, the Potomac was really an arm of the sea extending two hundred miles inland to Alexandria. Lord Fairfax,^ nearly three score years before fulfillment, made a prophecy that the future "seat of empire" would be located on this river. But above Alexandria a series of rapids began which ^Thomas Fairfax, sixth baron, came to the American colonies because of an alleged disappointment in love and settled in Vir- ginia, on the vast estate he had inherited from his mother, the daughter of Lord Culpepper. This embraced over five million acres between the Potomac and the Rappahannock. Some of it was sur- veyed by his young friend, George Washington. Near Winchester, Fairfax erected a temporary residence preparatory to a great manor house. This bachelor seat he called Greenway Court. He was grieved to see Washington take the rebel side in the Revolutionary 92 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE culminated in the Great Falls, a prime hindrance to navigation. It was with mingled feelings of admira- tion and regret that the Virginians viewed these falls. HoAvever, the art of man could amend the work of GREAT FALLS OF THE POTOMAC nature. The year following the close of the Eevolu- war and it is said died of a broken heart upon hearing of the sur- render of Cornwallis. A stanza of an old song runs: Then up rose Joe all at the word, And took his master's arm, And to the bed he softly led The lord of Greenway farm. And there he called on Britain's name And oft he wept full sore, And sighed! "Thy will, O Lord, be done," And word spake never more. THE BEGINNINGS OF KENTUCKY AND TENNESSEE 93 tionary war, the state of Virginia organized the *'Potomack Navigation Company" for improving the navigation of the Potomac from tide water to Wills Creek, a distance of one hundred and fifty miles. Owing to his exertions for the enterprise. General George Washington was given fifty shares of stock in the company.^ He afterwards made a personal in- spection of the river from Harper's Ferry to the Falls. His imagination saw it part of a great trans- portation system to the Ohio river. Thence the way would lead down to the mouth of the Muskingum and up that river to the Cuyahoga portage ; down the Cuyahoga to Lake Erie and thence to Detroit. He saw another possible route from the Ohio to Lake Erie along the Beaver river and still another along the Scioto. Yet the first wave of western immigra- tion turned from the Potomac southward rather than northward. This was due partly to the nature of the people. The Virginians and their neighbors were more migratory than the colonists farther north. They were a country peo^Dle, agriculturists and hunters. They were accustomed to solitude, with only the rifle for a companion. Their chief crop, tobacco, was ex- haustive and new soil was constantly needed. Slave labor was extensive rather than intensive in its nature. It did not cultivate the ground thoroughly ^ Washington was a wealthy man and accepted the stock simply as a trust to accumulate for some charitable purpose. In his will the object was stated as "the endowment of a university to be established within the limits of the District of Columbia, under the auspices of the general government." Attempts have been made at various times looking to the fulfillment of Washington's wish. 04 THE EXPANSTOX OF THE AMERICAX PEOPLE and intelligently. Kow land was constantly roqinr(?d. Civilization pressed along the frontier line which was being pushed out through the southern Alle- glianies. Thoughts arose of a new empire toward the west. Restless pioneers like Daniel Boone, "the Columbus of the land," were preparing the way for another expansion. E(X)NK'S ADVENTURE IN KENTUCKY The treaty of Fort Stanwix (now Utica) , New York, gave the white man a right to penetrate the trans- Alleghanian region, concerning which he had heard so many stories from its former aboriginal possessors. There were great meadows sparsely covered with trees under wdiicli the "blue grass" grew.^ There were ^The adjective "blue" is applied to a species of grass in England as well as in Kentucky, Texas, and Montana. Every species is THE BEGINNINGS OF KENTUCKY AND TENNESSEE 05 "mineral spnno;s" whose waters gave various tastes. There were "salt licks" where tlie ground had been lowered for the spaee of acres by tlie deer and buffalo wliicli had come tli(;re for yeai's to lick the salty earth. Tlu^ animals could be depended on for a constant sup- A KEXTUCKY BUFFALO PATH ply of food and the ground for the ever necessary salt. Tlie buffalo was the early pathfinder. His huge bulk tore a >vay through the underl)rush and his hoofs wore smooth the adopted paths between water courses and feeding places. Buffalo paths may yet be traced in many places in the middle west. In searching for a way from the western Virginia valleys to the noted for the pasture and hay it alTords. Tlie Kentucky bhie grass occupies a limestone region and grows in the partial shade of open woods. Its boundaries are distinctly marked by its vegetation. 96 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE Kentucky region, Daniel Boone/ and his hardy com- panions found that all buffalo paths converged at the Cumberland Gap. In 1769 he laid out a road two hundred miles long, passing through the Gap to the blue grass region of central Kentucky. Four years later the Virginia legislature accepted this as THE \VILDERXE3S ROAD the legal road to their Kentucky possessions and made elaborate preparations for imjiroving it under a guard of soldiers. The Indian title had been purchased, but many Indians refused to abide by the treaty. Little was accomplished on the road and it remained simply a track for the horseman or footman. All goods had to be carried on pack saddles.^ It was thirty years after Boone had traced the road before it ^ Daniel Boone will always stand as the type of a backwoodsman. He possessed great powers of endurance. Upon one occasion he is said to have walked eight hundred miles in sixty-two days. When his daughter with the daughter of a neighbor was captured by the Indians, Boone overtook and rescued them before they had gone forty miles from Boonesborough. This adventure has been described and portrayed many times. An old print preserved in the Congres- sional Library at Washington is shown on page 94. As usual the artist shows but slight appreciation of the dress worn on the frontier. ^ The pack saddle was made from the fork of a tree whose sides happened to curve to fit the sides of the horse. Upon it the goods I THE BEGINNINGS OF KENTUCKY AND TENNESSEE 97 was made passable for wagons, and then the expense was borne by public contribution. Five years later the Kentucky legislature adopted the road and placed tolls on it for its reiDair. This was the famous '' Wilderness road,"^ a name familiar to every early settler in Kentucky and Tennessee. Eventually it crossed the Ohio at the Falls (Louisville) and passing the French town of St. Vincent (Vincennes, Indiana), reached the French settlement in Illinois. The emigrants bound for Tennessee left the Wilderness road at the Powell river or turned south along the Clinch and the Holston in southwestern Virginia. Jonesboro was founded as the frontier town in Tennessee, but many pioneers i)ushed on to Knoxville and even founded Nashville on the site of a deserted French village. Ten years before the Revolution a regular road was opened from Camp- bell's Station to Nashville, over wliich parties were escorted at stated times by detachments of troops. The North Carolinians learned to follow the French Broad and Wautauga rivers directly over the moun- tains to the new country. By the close of the Revo- lution there were probably ten thousand inhabitants in what is now the state of Tennessee, then a district of North Carolina. to be carried were fastened. Finding a good fork was often no easy- task. It is said that the eye of a preacher holding service at a camp meeting in the woods once chanced to light upon a good crotch in a tree above him, but he announced that no attempt would be made to secure it before the conclusion of the services. 1 Between Crab Orchard and the Cumberland Gap in Kentucky the railroad several times crosses the Wilderness road. It may be traced from the car windows. The full extent of the road is seen in the accompanying map taken from the publications of the Filson Club of Louisville, Kentucky. CHAPTER IX THE BEGINNINGS OF KENTUCKY AND TENNESSEE (CON- TINUED) Incident to the peopling of tliis new country there could not fail to be some friction. James Harrod had founded Harrodsburg, Kentucky, under the Vir- _ ginia royal pat- ronage. But many argued that . this new land be- longed to the In- dians and not to King George. Richard Hender- son, a wealthy North C a r o 1 i- nian, at a Cher- ' okee council on the Wautauga, bought from them all the land lying south of the - Ohio and bet ween the Kentucky and the Cumberland rivers. Disregarding the proclama- tions of the governors of both Virginia and North Car- olina, Henderson in 1775 organized the company of DANIEL BOONE = ^ From an old sketch West Virginia. in the State Museum at Charleston, THE BEGINNINGS OF KENTUCKY AND TENNESSEE 00 "The Proprietors of the Colony of Transylvania " and marched his colonists into Kentucky, with Daniel Boone as guide. At Boonesborough they constructed a "station" consisting of a quadrangle of huts with a projecting blockhouse at each corner. A number of hunters and adventurers crowded into the new state of Tran- sylvania. Order was maintained and Henderson ruled like a feudal lord of olden time. A house of representatives was chosen and six laws passed. One forbade Sabbath breaking and profanity, and another encouraged the breeding of fast horses. There were probably two hundred and fifty white men at Boones- borough and but few white women. In a short time the citizens grew tired of Henderson's exacting rule. The state of Virginia dissolved the revolutionary state of Transylvania, appeasing Henderson and his sons by giving each two hundred thousand acres of land. A Virginia court for Kentucky county met at Boonesborough the year of Independence. Later it ordered a court house to be built in a safe place. There was to be room for the court in one end and for two juries in the other. A jail was also ordered to be made of hewed or sawed logs nine inches thick. Around the isolated site of these buildings Danville arose and so claims to have been the first capital. There was a great respect for the law among these early people in the wilderness. Controversies involv- ing personal honor were settled without the interven- tion of the law ; but the rights of property were grounded in the hope of public justice. The county seat was a general place of resort, the number of LofC. 100 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE STATE CAPrTf)T, OF KKXTTCKV. 1796 attendants at court as well as the number of cases decreasing during the summer or working months. The court house was often a log hut or a dwelling con- verted for the nonce into a place of justice. Much more elegant was the state house at Frankfort as pictured in the east- ern magazines. It was described as an " elegant, three-story limestone structure, in a country where the eye is seldom gratified with a building superior to a log hut." Any Kentuckian who rode into Frankfort viewed this building with pardonable pride as he tied his horse to the " hitching rack" which encircled the front. After the close of the Revolutionary war, immigra- tion spread rapidly to the western portion of the state along the Ohio river. Many began to come down that stream from Pittsburg to various disembarking points. Limestone (now Maysville, Kentucky) was a favorite place. Lower down were the Falls of the Ohio, a landmark and meeting place for the Indians and French. Near the portage around the Falls arose a village at first called Beargrass Settlement, but afterwards named "Louisville" for the French king who had aided the American cause. It con- tained probably the first store in the state. Louis- ville was founded just one hundred and seventy years after the settlement of Jamestown. So long it had taken to cross the mountains. THE BEGINNINGS OF KENTUCKY AND TENNESSEE 101 Evidences of civilization soon appeared as a proph- ecy of the future. In 1786 the Danville Political Club, a debating society, was organized to meet every Saturday night. It flourished for many years and discussed such questions as the Indian title to the lands in America, the best qualification of suffrage, and the expediency of Kentucky separating from Vir- ginia. The following year appeared the first number of the Kentucky Gazette, printed at Lexington by John Bradford. In 1780 the Transylvania University (now Kentucky University) was chartered. These fron- tiersmen were patriotic. The Virginia Independent Chronicle of September 3, 1788, contained an account of the celebration of tlie previous fourth of July at Lexington, Kentucke.^ The booth in which the dinner was prepared, was constructed in the form of a cross. In the centre was a sideboard twelve feet square ; in each wing was a table thirty feet long ; the roof was an arch twentyfour feet high ; in the centre over the side board was erected a platform fourteen feet high, on which was placed a band of music consisting of fourteen instruments ; there were arched win- dows amounting to fourteen, and four large arched doors ; on each table were fortynine dishes, in all an hundred and ninety-six. . . . We were at different periods saluted by fourteen riflemen's firing to the number of fourteen rounds. We danced on the green till six o'clock in the evening, when we retired to Capt. Young's Tavern, where after drinking tea we danced a sufiicient time ; when an ele- gant supper was provided by that gentleman ; after partaking of the delicacies of which, and spending our time till three o'clock in the morning, as between tea and supper, we finished the rejoicings consecrated to that auspicious day. During the whole time the ^ The attempt to imitate the Indian name for the region caused much variety in the early spelling of the word "Kentucky." Kaintucke, Kantucke and Caintuck were different forms. Some people still speak of " Old Caintuck. " An act of the state legisla- ture authorized the modern spelling. 102 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE greatest sobriety and oeconomy reigned triumphant (to the honour of the company be it said) and the greatest marks of approbation and satisfaction were visible in every countenance. The Kentucky country was shown in a map made by John Filson/ who came from Pennsylvania to enter land in Kentucky about 1784. He gained his data from descriiDtions of residents. He carried tlie map back to Delaware to be printed. It shows fifty forts, eight villages and three counties. There were also numerous " stations." ^ For several years a con- test went on between these progressive and restless people of Kentucky and the parent state of Virginia, which was ended in 1792 by the admission of Ken- tucky to the Union. Likewise the attempts of the Tennessee pioneers to gain independence of North Carolina created, for a short time, the revolutionary state of Franklin under Governor John Sevier.^ It ' Filson was the prophet of learning in Kentucky. The society named for him in Louisville is active in collecting and preserving material relating to early Kentucky history. Some of the illustra- tions used in this chapter appear through Ihe kindness of its presi- dent, Colonel R. T. Durrett. Filson has been unduly ridiculed for proposing the name of Losantiville (ville or village anti opposite to on the mouth of L the Licking river) for the site of what is now Cincinnati. Tlie proposition was but part of the classic spirit of the day. The fate of Filson is unknown, as is that of Harrod, the founder of Harrodsburg. Each perished in the solitude of the early forests. 2 This word was originally applied to an established place of halt- ing along the roads frequented by emigrants. It was usually the house of a settler where food and lodging could be obtained. On the frontier proper it was a barricaded settlement. A village some- times gathered aljout a station, retaining the name. A colony of foreigners might constitute a station. Among the celebrated stations in Kentucky were Bryant's. Clark's, and Low Dutch. ^The story of this military hero, revolutionary governor, outlaw, prisoner, legal governor, and member of Congress, may be found in many places. He named his temporary state in honor of Benjamin Franklin. Professor Turner, of the University of \Yisconsin, describes fully these revolutionary states in the first volume of the American Historical Revieiv. THE BEGINNINGS OF KENTUCKY AND TENNESSEE 103 was suj)pressed by the parent state, but its admission to the Union in 1796 as the state of Tennessee ended the dispute. Only when the hardships of these pioneers are brought vividly before one does he realize the will power necessary to overcome them. Even trivial affairs frequently bore hard, as the writer of the fol- lowing lines shows : ^ thurs (May) 30th (1775) We set out again and went dovv^n to Elk gardin and then suplied our Selves With Seed Corn and Irish tators then went on a littel way and turned my hors to drive before me and he got scard and ran away threw Down the Saddel Bags and broke three of our powder goards and Abrams beast Burst open a walet of corn and lost a good Deal and made a turrabel flustration amongst the Reast of the Horses Drakes mair run against a sapling and noct it down we cacht them all agin and went on and lodged at John Duncans Sunday 23rd — this morning the peopel meets and draws for chois of lots this is a very warm day monday 24th — we all view our lots and some Dont like them. . . , tuesday 25th — in the eavning we git us a plaise at the mouth of the creek and begin clearing Wednesday 26th — We begin Building us a house and a plaise of De- fense to Keep the indians off this day we begin to live without bread thursday 27th — Raney all Day But We still keep about our house Satterday 29th — we git our house kivered with Bark and move our things into it at Night and Begin housekeeping Eanock Smith Robert Whitledge and myself. . . . tuesday 2nd — I went out in the morning and killed a turkey and come in and got some on for my breakfast and then went and sot in to clearing for Corn. 1 Extracts from the journal of William Calk, traveling from Prince Williams County, Virginia, to Boonesborough, Kentucky. Printed in full in vol. II. of the Filson Club Publications. CHAPTER X ORGANIZATION OF THE SYSTEM OF PUBLIC LANDS The causes which led to the peopling of the region south of the Ohio river before that lying to the north may be summed up : 1. Ease of access, as shown in the preceding chapter. 2. The restless nature of the rural population in the states immediately east. 3. The quieting of the Indian claim to the region. 4. Ownership of the land being vested in the states of Virginia and North Carolina and not dis- puted, as was that of the region lying north of the Ohio river. When the several states holding these disputed claims north of the river yielded them to the Congress under the articles of Confederation, as de- scribed in C h a p t e r VII, that body ac- cepted the land as a trust until the number of inhabitants should warrant the creation of new states from it. It is impossible to 104 ^r^^2\ V0W^ ^ JiQS^:;^:,;^^^^^ vc?r ,AXD CLAIMS YIKLUKl) IN THE XORTHWKST ORGANIZATION OF THE SYSTEM OF PUBLIC LANDS 105 say who first conceived the idea of selling these lands for the benefit of the public treasury. It was a wide departure from the lavish granting of tracts by the king over which jurisdiction only was retained. Con- gress placed under the Board of the Treasury the dis- posal of this public land lying north and west of the Ohio river and created the "Northwest Territory." In many of the older states, especially in the south, no surveys of the land had been made and settlers were allowed to make their own boundaries by "toma- hawk marks" on the trees. Much land was left between these farms and frequent litigation ensued. Profiting by this experience, Congress determined to be more systematic with its lands and appointed Thomas Hutchins " Geographer of the United States," and ordered him to make a survey of the public lands x^reparatory to offering them for sale. Hutchins had been a royal military engineer on the Bouquet expedition and had planned a system of sur- veys for the frontier lands. To satisfy the jealous states, he was given thirteen assistants, one from each state. Only eleven appeared in 1786, when he began his work by running a line due north from the south- west corner of Pennsylvania until it crossed the Ohio river. ^ This line prolonged would make the boundary between Pennsylvania and the Northwest Territory. At the point of crossing the river a line was run due west at right angles to the north line. By running parallel lines at distances of six miles from these two lines, a huge "gridiron" with spaces six miles square was spread over the land. These squares were called ^ See sketch map on page 113. 106 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE " townshi2:)s," an adaptation of tlie New England division known as a " town." The final method of surveying the public land as arranged by Congress differs in certain particulars from the first directions to Hutchins, although the "rectangular system" has always formed the basis of operations. A row of townships north and south was called a "range." Each township was subdivided into thirty-six equal squares called sections. Each section was a mile square and contained 640 acres of land. The section was subdivided by emphasizing the middle cross lines into groups of fours or "quarters," designated hy northeast, southeast, etc. It was found desirable to erect north and south lines at different places to be called "principal meridians" and to form correcting and starting points. The first one is the state line between Ohio and Indiana. Upwards of thirty of these lines have been established as the surveying has moved west- ward. Across these meridians, "base lines" have been run at riglit angles to preserve the rectangular system. From the principal meridians, ranges are numbered east and west and from the base lines townshii3S are numbered north and south. By this arrangement it is possible to describe the exact loca- tion of a tract of land. For instance, assume that the township whose southwest corner is shown in the accompanying dia- gram is number four north of the base line and in range five west of the third principal meridian. The tract of land marked "X" lies in section 31 of the ORGANIZATION OF THE SYSTEM OF PUBLIC LANDS 107 township and would be described as the northwest one- fourth of the southwest one-fourth of section 31 in township four north and range five west of the third meridian. It would be ab- breviated into the N. W. i of the S. W. i of Sec. 31, T. 4. N., R. 5. W. of 3rd P. M. Thetracf'Z" is N. E. i of N.E. iof Sec. 31, T. 4. N., R. 5. W. of 3rd P. M.^ Congress made all possi- ble arrange- ments to suit the needs of prospective purchasers of land except to accommodate small i^urchasers. That was a later idea. In the first range, townships bearing even numbers w^ere to be sold entire ; those bearing odd numbers in groups. In the next range the order was reversed, and so on. A minimum price of one dollar per acre was established. In every township, lot six- teen was reserved for the maintenance of x)ublic schools and one-third of all gold, silver, lead, and cop- I- 19 20 21 UJ Z 30 29 28 I 1 1 z 32 X a ... 33 1 TOWNSHIP LINE SOUTH CORNER OF A TOWNSHIP, PUELIC LAND SURVEY 1 This illustration was chosen purely by chance, but if followed up on a sectional map the tracts will be found to lie near Highland, Madison County, Illinois. 108 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE per mines was kept for the benefit of the general government. A public highway was to run along each section line and a schoolhouse to be located at alternate crossings of these roads. Thus no settler would be more than a half mile from a public road or much farther than a mile from a schoolhouse/ The surveyors worked rapidly under the direction of Hutchins and by 1787 had laid off the first " seven ranges"^ from the eastward, and the land was thrown on the market. But the political difficulties of the day distracted public attention. It was feared that the government was too feeble to protect purchasers from Indian raids. Also, many people who might otherwise have purchased from the United States had claims to " bounty lands" which they hoped to locate in the Northwest Territory. These bounty lands were the fruits of the dark days of the Revolutionar}^ war, when the Congress had been obliged in two emergencies to encourage enlistment in the army by the ]3romise of "wild" land. Many of the states which then laid claims to western land had made similar promises. 1 Three variations of locating highways are shown in different parts of the United States. In the older states the roads pass along fields or around hills by easy ascent, according to no regular system. In the level regions of the states, at one time in the public domain, the roads stretch away in straight lines and at mile intervals, according to the system of surveys. In the uplands of these new states one often sees an abandoned government road running straight up the side of a hill and near by the improved county road reaching the summit by an easy grade. Common sense usually rises superior to any system. ^Tlie "geographer's line," as Hutchins's due west line is called, was ran only forty-two miles, or seven ranges of six miles each, w^hen the work was stopped through fear of the Indians. The line can be traced in some of the adjacent county boundaries in Ohio. It ends near Bolivar, Ohio. ORGANIZATION OF THE SYSTEM OF PUBLIC LANDS 109 Doubtless around the camp fires numerous discus- sions took place about the possible value of tlie lands to be received, and many visions arose in the minds of the future agriculturists. No sooner had the lands north of the Ohio river come into the hands of the general government than a petition reached Congress from two hundred and eighty-five officers residing in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, and Maryland, for the grant of a tract of land bounded by Lake Erie, Pennsylvania, the Ohio river, and a meridian beyond the Scioto river. Nothing came immediately of the scheme, but it was revived three years later at a meeting of "land certificate" holders at the Bunch of Grapes tavern in Boston. Among their number was General Benjamin Tupper, who had been a substitute surveyor on Hutchins's staff. He was turned back at Pittsburg by the Indian scare, but had been sufficiently near the Ohio country to hear of its wonders. He aroused the enthusiasm of the company by his descriptions of the land along the Ohio ; the great sycamore trees ; the streams abounding with fish ; the exceedingly fertile soil.^ General Parsons, who had descended the Ohio to the Falls, corroborated tlie stories of his comrade, Tupper.^ Hutchins was consulted and advised settling on the Ohio river rather than the shore of Lake Erie, because of accessi- ^ Tupper was a Massachusetts soldier, who served in the French wars, the Revolutionary war, and the Shays rebellion. On a second journey to the Ohio he served on the staff of Hutchins. An account of his funeral on the frontier may be found in the Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, January, 1888. 2 Parsons was a Connecticut Revolutionary officer who had gone to the Ohio as a commissioner to treat with tlie Miami Indians. 110 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE bility. He pointed out the mouth of the Muskin- gum river as a most favorable spot for the settlement to begin. The name "Ohio ComiDany of Associates" was adopted and the organization sent Parsons and after- ward Dr. Manasseh Cutler ^ to the Congress to pur- chase sufficient land for its purpose. But Cutler's mission was broader than the mere purchase of so many acres. Until erected into a state tlie land would presumably l)e under the general government. The New England soldiers had inherited a veneration for the forms of free government and the state encouragement of education and morality. Hence they were much concerned in the kind of rule the United States w^as to give them with the land. Having just emerged from a monarchy, the people in their state constitutions had hedged the individual about with many precautions lest his rights be encroached upon by the central government. A "bill of rights" must be assured by the Congress. When Cutler arrived in New York, the Congress happened to be considering this very question of a government for the Northwest Territory, regulations for which had been drawn up by Jefferson three 3^ears before. At Cutler's suggestion, Congress added to the general provisions of the ordinance a set of six articles x^i'oviding for : 1. Freedom of religion. ^ The Rev. Manasseh Cutler, of Massachusetts, served as chaphiin in the American army d uring the Revolutionary war. He was pastor of the Congregational society in Hamlet parish. Ipswich, for fifty- two years. The degree of doctor of laws was conferred upon him by Yale for his attainments in natural science. ORGANIZATION OF THE SYSTEM OF PUBLIC LANDS HI 2. Habeas corpus, bail, rights of property, sacred- ness of contracts, etc. 3. Establishment of schools and maintenance of good faith with the Indians. 4. Non-alienation of the territory, just taxation of the inhabitants, non-taxation of state lands, and free navigation of waters. 5. Arrangement of boundaries for states to be created from the territory. 6. No slavery to be permitted, but fugitive slaves to be returned. A vast amount of extravagant praise has been expended upon the provisions of this Ordinance of 1787 for the government of the Northwest Territory.^ The wisdom and foresight of its framers have been the subjects of frequent eulogy. It is said most untruthfully to have prevented slavery nortli of the Ohio.^ Yet it was simply a business transaction on sound principles. Congress wanted to sell the land and was willing to humor the purchasers in five of the six articles, preserving its own rights in the fourth one. The New Englanders wanted such rights guaranteed as they had under their state constitutions. They wanted to live peaceably with the Indians and ^ The text of the Ordinance for the government of the territory lying north and west of the Ohio river may be found in the Old South Leaflets (Boston), American History Leaflets (Lovell & Co.), Poore's Constitutions and Charters, Hinsdale's Old Northwest, and Preston's Documents. Its authorship is in dispute, although com- monly ascribed to Nathan Dane, a delegate in Congress from Mas- sachusetts. Its main provisions may be found in the constitution previously adopted by that state. 2 The Ordinance was interpreted to permit slaves already in the Territory to be held as such. Slavery died out very slowly north of the Ohio. 112 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE not to be obliged to compete with slave labor. Slavery still existed in some of their own states and they knew how free labor suffered from it. After the passage of the Ordinance a bargain was struck between Congress and Manasseh Cutler for two million acres l| of land. It was to lie north of the Ohio river, beginning o n the west line of the seven ranges, and to extend to the eighteenth range and far enough back from the river to make up the full amount. Five hundred thousand dol- lars was paid down. In default of some later payments, this " Ohio Company" purchase was reduced to a little over a million acres. The Scioto company formed to spec- ulate under the Ohio company grant will be described later. Much farther west, John Cleves Symmes, Chief Justice of New Jersey, attempted to duplicate the Ohio company in a large speculation for himself and a few others. He negotiated with Congress for one ^^'- ;JJ OKFILK, MARIKTTA ORGANIZATION OF THE SYSTEM OF PUBLIC LANDS 113 million acres on the north side of the Ohio between the Great and Little Miami rivers. Congress was obliged to take back about two-thirds of this land in FIRST PARTITIOXS OF PUBLIC LANDS the vicissitudes which followed the ' ' Symmes pur- chase." Virginia had early set aside the land in Kentucky upon the Cumberland and between the Green and the Tennessee rivers for the redemption of her bounty certificates, but, lest it might prove insufhcient, she 114 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE reserved the district north of the Ohio between the Scioto and the Little Miami rivers when she ceded her cLaims to the national government. This reserva- tion of over six thousand square miles was therefore called the " Virginia Military District." The United States had also bounty certificates to redeem, for which four thousand acres were set aside. These " Military Bounty Lands" lay west of the seven ranges and some distance north of the Ohio company lands. Connecticut had no bounty claims to redeem, but she wished to foster religion and education in her state ; she, therefore, at the time of cession, reserved a tract lying between the forty-first parallel and the northern boundary line of the United States for her schools and churches. It was to extend one hundred and twenty miles west from the Pennsylvania line. In 1792 half a million acres, comprising the entire western end of the reservation, was, by act of the Connecticut legislature, given to the inhabitants of New London and other towns of that state whose property had been destroyed in the raids made by the British during the war. In time this portion became known as "The Fire Sufferers' Lands" and simply "The Fire Lands. ' ' The entire reservation was known popularly as "The Connecticut Western Reserve," and shortened to " The Western Reserve." No other companies or speculators appeared, no other reservations had been made,* and Congress was ^ In addition to the larger tracts described here, Congress in 1801 gave a strip of land between the Muskingum and the Scioto in the central part of what is now Ohio to fifty-seven refugees who, with their families, had laeen driven from Canada because of their Ameri- ORGANIZATION OF THE SYSTEM OF PUBLIC LANDS 115 at liberty to throw the remaining lands on the market as soon as they could be surveyed. To them the general name of "Congress Lands" was given. They were divided in the surveys into townships of six miles square, as had been done in the Ohio Com- pany lands, the Symmes pur- chase, and the seven ranges. In the Military Bounty lands the townships were made five miles square. This was also the size e s t a b 1 ished in the Connecticut reserve by the men who eventu- ally bought the tract from that state. The territory south of the river K FORT STECBKX, 1788 can sympathy in the Revolutionary war. A small tract was given to one Dohrman, a Portuguese, who had aided the Americans in the war, and another grant to the Moravian Christian Indians after the massacre at Gnadenhutten. George Rogers Clark and his men were allowed one hundred and fifty thousand acres, located on the Ohio near the Falls in what is now Clark county, Indiana. At a later time the French settlers at the various villages in Indiana and Illinois were granted reservations of land. 116 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE had been settled by individual effort and at great per- sonal risk. That lying to the north had the protection of the United States. Fort Steuben was located on the upper Ohio, Fort Harmar at the mouth of the Muskin- gum, and Fort Washington between the mouths of the two Miamis. During the Indian war, which followed the opening of the Territory, many other forts were constructed. In order to give access to the interior of its lands. Congress authorized Ebenezer Zane to cut a road from Wheeling ^ in a southwesterly direction to the Ohio river at Limestone (now Maysville), Ken- tucky. He made a " trace" by cutting out the under- growth and blazing the trees sufficiently to allow a wagon to pass through. He had to arrange for fer- ries at the crossing of the Muskingum, the Hockhock- ing, and the Scioto. At these points he very wisely located the three sections of land which he received for his labors. One became Zanesville, another Lan- caster, and the third was opposite Chillicothe. The land comprised in this first portion of the pub- lic lands now com^DOses the states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, and that part of Min- nesota lying east of the Mississippi. In contains 265,- 878 square miles, a territory larger than that occupied by any European state save Russia. If it could have been sold at what was then a fair rate, it would have yielded to the central government a princely sum. Congress soon raised the minimum rate to two dollars an acre, but even at this low rate many could not pay ^ Wheeling was probably the first town settled on the Ohio. Zane was the founder. During a siege by the Indians in 1777. his sister, Elizabeth, carried the powder from her brother's house to the fort, as so frequently described. ORGANIZATION OF THE SYSTEM OF PUBLIC LANDS 117 for their purchases ; numerous relief measures were passed for them.^ The land lying along streams was often taken first and the interior left on the market. Speculators and swindlers flocked into the land offices when they were opened. Large blocks of land fell into the hands of a few men and, for a time, a system of foreign landlordism threatened. But with all the abuses connected with the disposal of the pub- lic lands, it was fulfilling its best purpose in being parcelled out among the people for the making of their homes. Indeed, the people themselves elimi- nated many of the evils and dangers by taking posses- sion of the land, establishing homes and assuming the powers of self-government as Congress had given it to them. ^The land certificates which tlie government accepted for the public lands had gone down as low as twenty-three cents on the dollar. Hence, although the price for the Ohio Company was seventy cents per acre and the Symmes purchase sixtj^-six cents the net average was not much above ten cents per acre. CHAPTER XI THE PEOPLING OF THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY The Ordinance of 1787 avMcIi Congress had devised for the government of the Northwest Territory was framed largely from past experience when the states had been English colonies. It was more liberal than some of the colonies had possessed and less liberal than others had enjoyed. Yet its wisdom and just- ness is shown by the fact that the general plan has been adhered to in all later territorial government by the United States where the i3eo23le seemed i:)repared for it. According to its provisions, the United States retained the right to appoint a governor, secretary, and three judges for the territory. The governor, in turn, was empowered to appoint inferior officers such as magistrates, and the lesser military officers. The governor and judges had the power of drawing up a code of laws. The central government retained the right of taxation. The second step was to give the people the beginnings of self-government when their population had reached a sufficient number to war- rant it. In the Northwest Territory, the presence of five thousand free male inhabitants being certified to the governor, one branch of a General Assembly or Legislature was to be chosen by those entitled to vote. The second branch of the Legislature was to consist of a council of five members chosen by Con- ns THE PEOPLING OF THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY 119 gress from ten men nominated by the other branch. The people were allowed even a limited participation in the national government. They could choose through their Legislature a delegate to Congress with a right of debating but not of voting. This territorial government was to be replaced by admission to statehood "on an equal footing with the original States in all respects whatever" whenever the poi^ulation reached sixty thousand free inhabit- ants, or at an earlier period "so far as it can be consistent witli the general interest of the Confeder- acy." Such has been generally the embryonic civil government of a territory. It is a compromise between home rule and absolute dependency. Quite naturally the first authority in an outlying territory has- been military. But the military regime has been replaced by this civil form as soon as it was safe to do so. The Ordinance was passed in July, 1787, and in the following October Congress appointed General Arthur St. Clair, of Pennsylvania, governor ; ^ Winthrop Sargent, of Massachusetts, secretary ; and Samuel Holden Parsons, of Connecticut, and James M. Varnum, of Rhode Island, judges. John Cleves Symmes was appointed the third judge. These men made preparations to proceed to the territory the following spring as soon as the streams were free of ice and the roads passable. ^ St. Clair was a native of Scotland who had served with the British army in the French-Indian wars, and on the patriot side in the Revolutionary war. He had made a home in Pennsylvania beyond the mountains and was to some extent familiar with frontier life. His military experience no doubt contributed to his selection as Governor, since the organization of the Territory was to be effected under military protection. 120 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE But the impatient Ohio Associates in Massachusetts could not await the beginnings of government in their new home. Two hours before daybreak on the second of December, 1787, several young men sat down to breakfast with the Rev. Manasseh Cutler at Ipswich, Massachusetts. Some of them were his parishioners and among them was his son. At dawn they paraded in front of the house, listened to an address from the preacher, fired a volley from their guns and marched away for the Ohio, to prepare the way for the Ohio Company colony. At Danvers they found twenty workmen and a strong baggage wagon awaiting them. On the black cover of the wagon Dr. Cutler had i^ainted in large white letters : FOR THE OHIO AT THE MUSKINGUM. The expedition crossed the Hudson, and went down through Pennsylvania until it reached the old Braddock road and in midwinter pushed on to the Youghiogheny. It could go no further since the river was frozen. No saw mills were running and boat timber was entirely wanting. While they tar- ried, smallpox broke out among them. In February, General Rufus Putnam, cousin to Israel Putnam, with the vanguard of the colony proper overtook them. No preparations had yet been made at the mouth of the Muskingum, but, there being no women in the party, all decided to go forward together as soon as boats could be built. In April they embarked on a union galley of forty-five tons burden, a ferr}^- boat of three tons, and three log canoes. In one week, after twice landing to secure game for food, they saw in a dense fog the outlines of Fort Harmar, THE PEOPLING OF THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY 121 and knew that across the Muskingum lay the site of their future homes. They soon cleared the land, surveyed part of it for town lots, and on another portion planted about one hundred acres of corn. By midsummer, a few huts and one blockhouse had been erected on the town site. A fortification was built of hewn timber, located about two hundred yards from the river with a glacis in front. To this stronghold was given the classic name, the Campus Martins. At a meeting of the directors the settlement was named Marietta. The plan of the town had been determined before leaving Massachusetts and it was made to conform to the "fortifications" or ancient 122 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE works wliicli were found at the mouth of tlie Musk- ingum. The streets and public squares Avere on a large scale, and to them Greek and Latin names were given in accord with the classic spirit of the age.^ A temporary place of assembling was con- structed of felled trees and branches and called ' ' the bower." Indian alarms were common. The men by rota- tion formed an armed guard. However, they cele- brated the Fourth of July by a cessation of labor, a dinner, and orations, as if they had been back in peaceful Massachusetts with their friends. Two weeks later the civil government made its formal ap23earance at the bower in the persons of Governor St. Clair, his secretary and two of the judges. The governor was cordially received by the citizens, who listened to his proclamations and his address. He began at once to institute local government by erect- ing the land about Marietta into the "county" of Washington^ for administrative purposes. In Sep- ^ The names of Muskingum and Adelphia were first suggested for the settlement, but remembrance of tlie gratitude to France, as well as sympathy for the situation of the unfortunate queen among the hostile French, suggested the name Marie Antoinette. It was shortened into Marietta. From Campus Martins ran the Via Sacra and the Via Romana. On higher ground was the Quadranou and below it flowed the Tiber. In later times the Campus Martins has become the Public Square and the Tiber is Goose Creek. The ancient earthworks of the "Mound Builders"' have almost disap- peared in the grading of the streets and lawns. 2 The county was created for the purpose of administering local government. Certain minor details of administration were given over to the townships, although they were created originally as survey units. The township was derived from New England and the county from the southern states. Thus in the middle states the two systems are united. It has been the policy to create new counties by dividing the old ones as population might from time to time warrant. THE PEOPLING OF THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY 123 tember the governor and the judges were rowed from their official residence at Fort Harmar across to the "point" at Marietta, whence a formal i)ro.cession escorted them to the ToAvn Hall in the Campus Martins. There the first session of court was opened with prayer. It was said that the first laws passed were copied and nailed upon a tree for public reading. The New England religious and educational spirit was constantly manifest. The governor appointed a day of Thanksgiving during the first j^ear. No cler- gyman was present and General Parsons, the son of a Massachusetts clergyman, preached from Psalm ciii. 2. A teacher was sent out by the Company dur- ing the summer and a preacher, a graduate of Dart- mouth college, the following spring. The latter received five dollars per week and his board among his parishioners. The first sermon in the settlement was preached in the bower in July by the Rev. Mr. Breck who was making a tour of the Ohio. He chose for a text Exodus ix. 5 and 6. A tree was felled in the Campus Martins and an official examination was made of the rings to determine its age. Official sur- veys and descriptions of the ancient earthworks or "mounds" were made. A ceremonious dinner was given by the directors to the governor and the officers at Fort Harmar. In August, eleven other pioneers arrived, bringing their families with them. The row galley was sent up to Wells ville, Virginia, to bring them down. With them came Dr. Cutler to visit the settlement. The women brought a new life to the backwoods. In 124 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE December a ball was given, at which "fifteen ladies were present as well accomplished in the manners of polite circles as any I have seen in the old states." No doubt the colonists were too busy to think of their isolated situation. But they were frequently cheered by the sight of fellow emigrants who stopped at Mari- etta and the Fort on their way to Kentucky. During the first summer they were visited by a New CINCIXNATI IN 1819 Jersey colony under Judge Symmes bound for his purchase farther down the river. He had started from New Jersey with fourteen four-horse wagons and sixty persons, going by way of Bradford, Pennsylvania, and the Braddock road to Pittsburg. Embarking in flatboats, the party floated down the Ohio to Limestone, where the women and children THE PEOPLING OF THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY 125 remained whilst twenty-six of the men went down below the mouth of the Little Miami to lay out the town of Columbia, now part of Cincinnati. A month later another party descended from Limestone and founded Losantiville, now Cincinnati/ opposite the mouth of the Licking river. The following summer Fort Washington was built to protect these settle- ments. Symmes established his own family at the mouth of the Great Miami, where the Ohio river reaches its northernmost point in its upward sweep. This was known as the "north bend" of the river and the Symmes settlement ultimately adopted that name after having been called Miami City and Symmes City. The locating of Fort Washington^ farther up the river killed the chances of Symmes City and made Cincinnati. It was one of many grievances held by Symmes against the government in connec- tion with his unfortunate purchase. Colonel Nathaniel Massie, a Virginian, who had acquired a number of state bounty certificates, entered the Virginia Military district in 1790 and founded a town on the Ohio river a few miles above Limestone, which he called Manchester. Further settlements in the district were delayed by the Indian war in the ^ At the close of the Revohitionary war the officers formed an association known as the Order of the Cincinnati, since they were now to return to civil life. Many of the Ohio settlers were mem- bers of that order. Hence the suggestion of tlmt name for a settle- ment, said to have come from Governor St. Clair, found a ready hearing. 2 Anna, the daughter of Sjanmes, formed an atta(^hment for a young captain in charge of Fort Washington. Tlie father opposed the match, but taking advantage of his absence the j'oung people were married. The captain was William Henry Harrison, after- ward President of the United States. 126 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE Northwest Territory, which was ended by the Green- ville treaty in 1795. The following year Massie laid out a town on the Scioto and gave to it the old Indian name of Chillicothe. This Military district was set- tled almost entirely by Virginians and Kentuckians, large tracts of the land having passed through the hands of speculators who bought up the certificates from the soldiers. The surveys were made according to the systems of individual surveyors and the result- ing litigation has become a heritage for lawyers. Early travelers claimed that they could mark a dif- ference between the settlers of this district and the New Englanders on the east and the New Jerseyans on the west. But all such comparisons were no doubt colored by the anti-slavery feeling. The New Englanders at Marietta formed simply an island in southern Ohio. They did not follow the natural due west line of migration. The people have flowed gen e rally across the continent like some viscous subs tance, THE CAMPUS MARTIUS, MAKIETTA, OHIO C U C C K e CI Dy m o u n t a i n s ^ It is interesting to trace the duplication of names of Virginia towns in this district. Manchester, Williamsburg, Winchester, Fin- castle, and others recalled to the settlers the homes they had left THE PEOPLING OF THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY 127 and swamps, pouring through openings and along waterways, and always seeking the lowest level and easiest path. If the continent had presented neither obstacle nor advantage, the migration would have been due west on evenly advancing lines from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Two exceptions to this rule have already been described; viz., the Carolinians, who at first went north of their natural path into Kentucky and Tennessee, and the Marietta New Englanders, who went south of theirs. In each case the deviation was due to finding an easier way. Lake Ontario and Lake Erie formed the natural route between Massachusetts and the Ohio country. A line drawn from Boston to Lake Ontario would pass along the Mohawk river. But beyond the head of that river lay the lake region of central New York. Many of these lakes stretched north and south across the path, and the country about them, now drained and exceedingly fertile, was then a mass of tangled briars into which even the Indians rarely ventured. The British soldiers maintained communication by water between the different forts along the border. Their presence and the resulting lack of allegiance of the Indians to the United States also had inclined the New Englanders to take a more southerly route to the west.^ Under such conditions, Connecticut found it impos- behind. According to the Virginia custom the word "Court House" was at first appended to the covinty seats, but has now been dropped by all save Washington Court House. ^ These forts were retained by the British until evacuated under the Jay treaty agreement twelve years after the close of the war. La Rochefoucauld in his " Travels" describes them as Michillimak- kinak (Mackinac), Detroit, Miami, Niagara, and Oswego. 128 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE sible to attract individual buyers to the large strip of land which she had reserved in the northeast corner of the territory. Finally, patterning after Congress, she sold all of it except the Fire Lands to a number of speculators styling themselves the "Connecticut Land Company," Their agent, General Moses Cleaveland, led a body of surveyors into the tract by way of Lake Ontario. He quieted the Indian claims to the eastern portion of the reserve by giving them £500, two head of cattle and one hundred gallons of whisky. Landing at the mouth of the Conneaut river, Cleaveland and his party of fifty, including two women, celebrated Independence Day, 1796, by a feast of pork and beans with bread. A little later surveys were begun at the mouth of the Cuyahoga river, where a village sprang up and soon received the name of the agent of the company.^ One year later the " Girdled Road " was constructed from the Penn- sylvania line to Cleaveland.^ By 1800 there were 1,302 residents within the boundaries of the reserve and twenty-five settlements were recognized by name. The Western Reserve was settled almost exclusively by New England people. The population of Ohio represents that element in the northern portion only and in a few scattered cases like Marietta and Gran- ville. Fully two-thirds of the state was settled by 1 It is said that Cleaveland was shortened to Cleveland by one of the early editors because he could not get so many letters into the heading of his newspaper. - The undergrowth was cleared a width of twenty-five feet and the large trees "girdled"' a width of thirty -three feet. When the bark was removed from the trees they soon died and so let in tlie sunshine on the road. In time they were removed. Such was the common method of road making. THE PEOPLING OF THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY 129 Peniisylvanians and Virginians. Some writers are inclined to attribute the unusual i3rominence of the state in jDublic affairs to this commingling of diverse elements. Others say that owing to the topography of the land, the western migration from fully one- half of the older states had to pass through Ohio. It thus secured an early predominance. It was not to be expected that the sale of these western lands could be inaugurated without the spirit of speculation arising and at times proving dis- astrous. Cutler and Sargent, in their negotiations with Congress for the Ohio Company, secured as a private speculation four million acres of land lying west and north of the Ohio Company tract. Some revolutionary ofHcers were associated in the enter- prise and financial backing was found in New York city. Joel Barlow, the Revolutionary poet, was sent to France and organized the Society of the Scioto, to which he sold three million acres of the specula- tion lands. He agreed to have huts erected on the land opposite the mouth of the Great Kanawha to accommodate at least one hundred iDersons. In the spring of 1790, forty laborers came on from New England, cleared a small space, and erected a square of log huts with a blockhouse at each corner. Meanwhile six hundred French emigrants had reached Alexandria, Virginia, but missed the agent sent to meet them. Alarmed by the threatened uprising of the Indians north of the Ohio, they could with difficulty be persuaded to venture over tlie mountains. When at last they reached their settle- ment, which they named Gallipolis, they planted 1 30 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE their little gardens according to the directions in their books on agriculture and started their vine- yards ; but they dared not venture beyond the pro- tection of their guns. A second colony imder Count de Barth and Marquis Marnesia reached Marietta but feared to go down to their proposed settlement at the mouth of the Scioto. The par- ty was scattered, some m. embers going on to the old French towns in Illinois. Letters sup- posed to have been written by the French set- tlers on the Ohio, describing their enchanting s u r - roundings, and prosperous condi- tion, were sent back and printed in France. Ad- vertising pam- phlets were issued to the same effect. A few more French were persuaded to come over, but they were as unfitted as their fellows for this frontier life. They embraced carvers, gilders, coat and peruke makers, musicians, frisseurs, and brass w^orkers, but SCIOTO COMl»AXY FRENCH PAiMPHLKT THE PEOPLING OF THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY 131 few mechanics and laborers. It was a bit of Paris set down in the wilderness. Notwithstanding their privations they assembled twice each week in the ball-room. Ignorant of backwoods ways, some of tlie men were killed in felling trees ; others were poisoned by eat- ing unknown fruits ; still others were tomahawked by the savages. During the winter, many families lived on beans boiled in water, without meat or bread. In addition to all these hardships, the title of the speculating company to the land was found defective. However, Congress came to the relief of the foreigners and gave them a " French grant" near the mouth of the Scioto. Throughout southern Ohio may be found families of Juggernaut, Du Bois, Drouillard, Richards, Bertholet, Duduit, and others, descended from these French settlers.^ In thus preparing the eastern portion of the terri- tory north of the Ohio river for sale and settlement, Congress was not unmindful of the fact that there was no inconsiderable number of French people further west whom the United States had acquired with the soil in the peace of 1783. Provision was made in the Ordinance for acknowledging the just claims of these habitants to their property. But it was known that many adventurers and traders had gone into the region and " squatted" upon desirable tracts without title deeds. ^ The story of the unfortunate French who were allured to the banks of the Ohio and to a life for which they were not fitted may be found in Howe's "Historical Collections," the Ohio Archaeolog- ical and Historical Society's publications, and such early writers as Breckenridge and others. The advertising pamphlet shown here- with is in the collection of J. H. James, Esq., of Urbana, Ohio. 132 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE One of these French settlements, Cahokia, was said to have been founded as a mission and trading post by some of La Salle's party in 1683. Its situation exposed it to overflow in the spring floods of the Mis- sissippi river, but it was not threatened with annihi- lation by the washing away of the banks as was another French village, Kaskaskia. Some claimed that Kaskaskia was older even than Cahokia and had been founded by Marquette in 1673. It consisted of some seventy cabins clustered about the church of the Mission of the Immaculate Conception. From Kas- kaskia the great trail led to Detroit.^ In these villages each adult had been given ' ' three hundred feet, more or less," measured with strips of bark and had erected thereon a plain square dwell- ing. The farm land lay without the village and was held in common. There were no deeds or legal papers and few disputes. French and Indians dwelt together in Acadian simplicity. The white people adopted the moccasins, and the redskins fashioned their blankets into capotes. Sunday morning and on holy days all went to church ; in the evening all came together in the largest room in the village and danced under the approving eye of the priest. Into this simple life George Rogers Clark had broken and had left behind him the county of Illinois, a part of Virginia. At such a distance, justice was with difficulty adminis- tered and the incoming English-speaking people embraced many adventurers who insolently took pos- session of the lands of tlie French. ' See sketch map, page 222 THE PEOPLING OF THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY 133 In order to warn these invaders to secure titles or evacuate the land as well as to collect information about the French residents and to impress the Indians, General Harmar had been sent to the Illinois country with a detachment of troops. He made no reckoning of the French women and children in the different villages, but found at Vincennes (now Indiana) five hundred and twenty men ; at Kaskaskia (now Illinois), one hundred and ninety-one men ; at Cahokia (now Illinois), two hundred and thirty-nine men. Many other French families were scattered through the country. He served notice of the intentions of Congress on the Americans he found in the old French stockades of La Belle Fon- taine and Grand Ruisseau, and about thirty more whom he found scattered at different points. These made immediate preparations to send petitions to Congress. Of the French he reported : * * All these people are entirely unacquainted with what Americans call liberty. Trial by jury, etc., they are strangers to." He therefore suggested the expediency of adopting a military rule for them.^ But to maintain military rule in the Territory in time of peace was contrary to the spirit of the Ordinance, and Congress preferred to let St. Clair continue to spread civil rule and await the influx of liberty-loving people from the eastern states 1 Many of Harmar' s letters are printed in the St. Clair Papers. See these two volumes also for St. Clair's eventful administration as governor as well as the sad circumstances of his later life. Hutchins, in Imlaj^'s ''America," estimates about four thousand whites in what is now Indiana and Illinois. They were " mostly French. ' ' 134 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE who Avoulcl imbue these French subjects with higher ideals.^ The stormy life of St. Clair as governor of the Northwest Territory, especially in connection with the admission of Ohio, gives a fresh realization of the diversified elements which at first rushed into the region. Sectional differences, race prejudices, land- lordism versus individual holdings — all these diffi- culties had to be overcome in the evolution of a harmonious state. As usual, union came not from choice but from necessity. Law and order were gradually evolved along the fron- tier and the future of the Territory seemed assured. Many had feared, like Washing- ton, that it might become the haunt of banditti or outlaws who would prey on the older portion, or that the fear of the savages would limit population to the safer east. But intelligent, educated men, who planted their homes in the wilderness, led by solid judgment and appreciating all tlie hazards, were likely to pro- tect and abide by those homes. FIRST OHIO CAPITOL. CHILLICOTHE ^ No fear of a permanent French predominance in the Territory- arose in the mind of any one wlio studied the record of the past. When Marietta was founded, there had been a French colony on the Illinois for one liundred and six j^ears, and one in the Indiana country for thirty-six years. Yet both remained simply outposts. CHAPTER XII JOURNEYING TO THE OHIO COUNTRY So rapidly was the Northwest Territory i^eopled under the protection of the United States, that, not- withstanding tlie Indian war,^ one portion had passed through the various stages necessary to statehood in the short space of sixteen years. The evohition of this state, Ohio, may be taken as typical of those following : 1787. The land lying north of the Ohio and east of the Mississippi was erected into the Northwest Territory. 1798. Members of a Territorial Assembly (Legis- lature) were chosen by the people (5,000 inhabitants). 1799. A Territorial Assembly met at Cincinnati. 1800. The Northwest Territory was divided into Ohio territory and Indiana territory, with capitals at Chillicothe and Vincennes. 1802. The inhabitants of Ohio territory petitioned Congress for statehood. Congress j^assed an "ena- bling ' ' act authorizing the people to meet and draw up a state constitution. The constitutional conven- ^The Indians north of the Ohio repudiated the treaty of Fort Stanwix and harassed the settlers. During the ensuing intermit- tent warfare, Gen. St. Clair was defeated by them, but a decisive victory was won by Gen. Wayne on the Maumee. Wayne then made a treaty with the Indians which secured peace to the north- west until the War of 1812. 135 136 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE tion met at Chillicothe. (Census showed only 45,000 inhabitants.) ^ 1803. Congress found nothing in the state consti- tution ]*epugnant to the constitution and laws of the United States, and therefore extended the laws of the United States over the territory of Ohio. (Equivalent to creating a state. In later cases, states have been regularly ' ' admitted. ' ') The people who thus journeyed into a new land and erected a state followed the paths adopted by the first comers. The Carolinians crossed the mountains and came up through Tennessee and Kentucky. The emigrants from the states farther north came through Pennsylvania and down the Ohio. Pittsburg con- tinued to be the main gateway to the west. One might find the banks of the river at that city occupied by hundreds of families with their household goods awaiting the comi3letion of the craft which was to bear them down the Ohio, or daily j^raying for rain which would enable them to take out the completed boat on the ensuing rise of the river. ^ ^ The Ordinance had set sixty thousand free inhabitants as the basis of statehood, but the action could be taken at an earlier period if "consistent with the general interest of the confederacy." The overthrow of the Federalist party and the election of Jefferson in 1800 was the first democratic upheaval and the *' general inter- est" immediately demanded extension of statehood privileges. Federalist New England opposed the admission of Ohio, and the central and southern states supported it. Parties had begun to influence measures. 2 Some travelers declared that so much as three million dollars' worth of goods was at times piled up at Pittsburg awaiting high water. Since boats could reach Wheeling at a much lower stage of water than Pittsburg, that settlement aspired to be a rival of the larger Pittsburg. In a speech in Congress, Henry Clay told of a vessel bearing clearanc^e papers from Pittsburg which was seized at Leghorn, Italy, after journeying thither. Such a port as "Pitts- JOURNEYING TO THE OHIO COUNTRY 137 These seekers for fortune in a new land wei-e of varying degrees of prosperity. The thrifty New Englander was present with his compactly arranged household effects, his clean and neatly clad family, and a stern austerity showing in every action. Near at hand was to him an unusual sight. From the uplands of Pennsylvania or Virginia had come a PITTSBrRft IN 1810 family of Irish who were careless of manners, the children half clad, and the most prominent and dis- turbing bit of furniture a jug of home-distilled whisky. There was also the tall, gaunt "poor Avhite " of Vir- ginia or the Carolinas, with good blood in his veins, yet the victim of generations of comjDetition with slave labor. He had now ventured with his numerous burg" had never been heard of and could not be found on the maps, and the papers were therefore supposed to be fraudulent. 138 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE household on the ui3per route to a new home in the "guv'ment" lands. He commonly had long black hair, swore loudly, chewed tobacco, and smoked, whilst his shrill-voiced helpmeet confined herself to her pipe. Mingling with the crowd was the Yankee peddler, with his nasal voice, and his eye keen for the chance of a gain. His tinware, Dutch ovens, and wooden clocks were urged upon the emigrants as absolute necessities in the land to which they were bound. ^ The "speculator," marked by his shrewd eye and prosperous dress, grew eloquent in his descrip- tions of the richness of the lands he offered for sale at a mere song. The land agent, going out to his new official position, exhibited his commission bearing the signature of the President and tlie great seal of the United States. Soon he would be busy "doing a land office business." There was no limit of age to these birds of passage. Travelers have described over- taking old couples of sixty years bound into the west solely on the excuse — " Well, our children were all grown up and married and we had no ties, and so just packed up and followed the crowd." The more intelligent travelers examined the remains of old Fort Pitt, and agreed w^ith the judgment of Washington that the low land forming the point at the junction of the rivers had been a poor location for a fort. The bomb-proof magazine built by the British government at a cost of £60,000 stood until 1820. The old blockhouse erected by the early settlers just ^The Yankee trader was said to sell "pit coal indigo, and wooden nutmegs. " He was also suspected of converting whisky into gin by adding pine tops to it. JOURNEYING TO THE OHIO COUNTRY 139 above the fort is still preserved. In 1760 there had been some two hundred people about Fort Pitt, and five years later the town was laid out under the direc- tion of an attorney of the Penn heirs. Soon the fine king's gardens and large orchards which furnished vegetables and fruit for the officers in the fort disappeared in town lots. The first row of houses had been built on the Allegheny river bank, but the spring freshets wore away the bank and the houses disappeared. The presence of coal in western Pennsylvania had been known since 1759. In 1784, under the extensive rights sold by the heirs of William Penn, the mining of coal was begun all about Pittsburg. Coal suggested manufactures, and before the year 1800 glass was made in that city. Boots, shoes, saddlery, paj^er, and iron soon followed. Travelers were disgusted with the smoke from these manufactories, and readily believed the story that a Pittsburger, on being taken into the country for the first time in winter, exclaimed, " What white snow ! " Indeed, migrants tarried in Pittsburg as short a time as possible, since it was firmly believed that the ex- cessive smoke of the air produced that enlargement of the thyroid gland so common then and known as the goitre. OLD BLOCKHOUSK, PITTSBTTRCJ 140 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE The most common means of transportation on the Ohio was the "Kentucky flat bottom," "family l)oat " or "ark." On a shallow platform without keel, such a boat as is used even now for private ferries in many places, was built a rude cabin or house. The keel was from forty to one hundred feet long and about fifteen feet wide. From the roof pro- jected two great oars or " broad horns," with which the craft was kept in the channel. Inside the house the family lived. When the desired landing was reached, the boards of the house were used for floor- ing, roof, and doors of a log cabin. The "barge" was a huge vessel almost as large as an Atlantic schooner and rec[uired twenty-five hands to pole it up stream. It was too heavy, rec^uired too much water, and was not much used. Several families frequently united and built a "raft," sometimes seventy feet long, on which was carried not only a house but domestic animals with their provender. At the door of the cabin sat a woman knitting. From the top of the haystack the cock crowed. These "floating farmhouses" carried a pang of homesickness to the emigrant who had left behind him his family to await his home-making ; but at the same time they gave him an enthusiastic con- fidence in the future.^ Past the floating "flat bottom" and "i-aft" would go the swift "keel" boat propelled by six or eight oarsmen seated in the bow. It was the palatial packet of the river before the day of the steamboat. ^ In some years more than one thousand boats were counted as they passed Marietta going down the river. 4 JOURNEYING TO THE OHIO COUNTRY 141 A deck six feet high gave a promenade by day and a shelter by night. Inside, the passengers slept on mattresses thrown on the freight and ate from the tops of boxes. Fares were high unless one could work his passage at the oars, and few families could afford to travel in this way. In 1794 two keel-boats passed regularly between Pittsburg and Cincinnati, making the round trip in a month. They were provided with bullet- proof cov- er s and p o r t h oles and car- ried can- n o n a n d small arms. The oars- men could m a k e as high as one h u n d r e d miles down JOLLY FLATROAT MKN stream i n twenty-four hours, unless delayed by discharging freight ; up river the empty boat could with hard labor be "poled " only ten to twenty miles per day. These boatmen,^ were the terror of the river towns. ' The boatmen had a vernacular peculiar to themselves and most interesting to travelers. The pole used in pushing the boat was called a "shoulder pole," because one end rested against the shoulder in pushing. The tow lines sometimes received the French name of cordelles. Frequently the boat was drawn along the shore by the men grasping successive overhead branches. This was called 142 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE They had no residences and acknowledged no author- ity. They boasted that they were not of woman born, but were "half hoss and half alligator." Some- times for days they floated along, dancing on the decks or exchanging badinage with the girls along the shore, but at other times they worked in a storm or at the rapids amidst peril and hardship. On many a headland along the shores one could And the grave of a boatman who had succumbed to the vicissitudes of the life. Nevertheless their appar- ently easy labor enticed the sons of the farmers along the river away from their homes and added to the grudges borne against them. Sometimes they took upon tliemselves a crude reform spirit, as when they seized the whipping-post in a Kentucky town and threw it into the river. At night they beguiled the way Vv^ith songs, much to the disgust of the travelers or the inhahitants of a town where tliey might be tarrying. The sentimental side of their rough natures showed in their songs : It's oh ! as I was walking out, One morning in July, I met a maid, who ax'd my trade. Says I, I'll tell you presently, Miss, I'll tell you presently. And it's oh! she was so neat a maid. That her stockings and her shoes She toted in her lily white hands, For to keep them from the devv^s. "bushwhacking."' The accompanying illustration is from a wood- cut in the State Museum, Charleston, West Virginia. JOURNEYING TO THE OHIO COUNTRY 143 A favorite chorus of the boat songs ran as follows : Some row up, but we row down, All the way to Shawneetown. Pull away — pull awa5^^ Sha^yneetown lay on the Ohio just below the mouth of the Wabash, and was the place of debarkation for the Illinois country. Beyond it one met the Missis- sij^pi trade, and it was therefore the ultima thule of the Ohio boatmen as Natchez was for the Mississippi. The necessary stay of these boatmen in Shawneetown before starting on the return journey gaye the place an unwholesome reputation. It was said to contain all the plagues of Egypt. A few pioneers passed beyond Shawneetown to ascend the Cumberland or Tennessee riyers into Kentucky and Tennessee, but this was too circuitous a journey until the steamboat came into use. The boatmen as well as the families floating down the Ohio were obliged to depend upon their rifles for fresh meat on the way. Occasionally a flock of wild geese would be sighted walking about on a sandbar, but frequently such expectations of edible food upon near approach proyed to be pelicans or cranes. The shotgun was held in most profound contempt by these expert riflemen. An old adage ran, "Luck's like a shotgun, mighty uncertain." Flour could be ^ The song of the boatmen had a romantic counter-sound in the horn which was blown almost continuousl}^ at night, especially in approaching a bend in the river. A writer in the Lexington, Ken- tucky, Review, recalls the olden times in a poem, one stanza of which runs : O boatman, Tvlnd that horn a^ain, For never did the Hstening air Upon its lambent bosom bear So wild, so soft, so sweet a strain! 144 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE obtained from the floating mills along the river. The miller chose a point where a current was pro- duced by a bend or shallow place in the river, and fastened a barge to the shore. Farther out he anchored a canoe and between the barge and canoe he j)laced a shaft sui3porting the Avater- wheel. A belt was run from the barge end of the shaft to the mill- stones, and the mill was ready for action. On the river the steering was done by the Pittsburg Navigator, in which the channels, shoals, and snags m'culloch's leap- were charted. As they floated along, the travelers passed the "big grave" near Grave Creek, where an "Indian mound," sixty-four feet high and fifty feet in diameter, marked presumably the resting-place of some mighty chief. Not far distant was the cliff on Wheeling Creek, over which Major McCulloch had * From an old lithograph in the Library of Congress, Washington. JOURNEYING TO THE OHIO COUNTRY 145 leaped his horse in escaping from the Indians. The " Long Reach" of seventeen miles was a marked con- trast to the usual tortuous route of the river. " Dead Man's Riffle" (ripple) with its rocks just below the sur- face of the water, was reached with some anxiety. At Marietta many stopped to see the shipyards from Avliich the square-rigged vessel had been launched and carried down to New Orleans by Commodore Whipple, of Revolutionary fame. At the mouth of the Kanawha salt was purchased which had been shipped down from the saltworks seventy miles above. ^ It was the last place where that commodity could be purchased until Shawneetown was reached, near which were located the government salines. Opposite the mouth of the Scioto was the dreaded "Indian lookout," where an attack from the savages was to be expected. Along the bluffs ran the path of the "spies" or scouts who i^atrolled the river from the Big Sandy to Limestone. Passing Cincinnati and Fort Washington the travelers came eventually to the more rapidly moving water which denoted the proximity of the Falls of the Ohio. Here all goods must be landed and carried around in the summer and early autumn, but during the high water season, boats not infrequently chose one of the three "chutes" and went over the rapids in safety. The descent was about twenty-two feet over a stretch ^ Salt had been a grave question with the first settlers who left the coast, where it was made by evaporating sea water. The attempt to put a tariff on salt in the first Congress under the Con- stitution (1789) brought a vigorous protest from the trans- AUegha- nians of Pennsylvania and Virginia, who had to carry salt on horseback across the mountains. 146 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE of two miles and the current usually thirteen miles an hour. Opposite the flourishing town of Louisville, at the Falls, was Clarksville, founded on a grant of land made to George Rogers Clark for his Revolution- ary services. The mouth of each side stream as marked in the Navigator was approached with interest, since here was usually a settlement. Settlers established homes along these lateral waters and came down to the mouth to trade. When the main stream was swollen by rain which had fallen about its head waters, the unusual volume of water ' ' backed up ' ' these side streams, much to the mystification of unskilled navigators. Flint tells of a boat which had floated in this manner some miles up a stream and its owners could Avith difficulty be persuaded that they were not on the way to New Orleans. He also illustrates the taciturnity of the boatmen in their inquiries and replies on one occasion: "Where are you from?'' "Redstone." "What's your lading?" "Millstones." "What's the captain's name?" "Whetstone." "Where are you bound?" "Limestone." Floating down the Ohio or rowing up the Tennes- see or the Cuml)erland involved hardships, but none comparable with those experienced in crossing the Alleghanies. In 1770, the heart of Washington was touched by the sight of "several families going over the mountains to live ; some without having any places provided. Tlie -snow from the Alleghany mountains was near knee deep."^ A sigh of relief ^ In his Journal of a Tour to the Ohio. Printed in Sparks's '•Washington," II., 5"83. JOURNEYING TO THE OHIO COUNTRY 147 usually escaped the weary ti\aveler Avhen Pittsburg was reached, although the carriage containing the Rey. Timothy Flint and his family was overturned as it was entering that city.' The undressed and often ungraded roads, the lack of bridges, the break- age of vehicles, the sparsely settled country, con- tributed to make the crossing an experience to be dreaded and not willingly repeated. Many declared the mountains "a barrier almost as impassable as the grave." Widespread and urgent was the demand for some amelioration of this hardshixD which so rudely sundered home ties.^ Private capital had not accumulated sufficiently for such an enterprise ; local feeling was too strong to hope for state cooperation ; the national treasury was the only resource left. Many petitions for aid were sent to Congress. By the act admitting the state of Ohio, five per cent of the land sales in that state was payable to the national treasury. From this fund, in 1806, Congress ordered the survey of a higlnvay from the headwaters of some Atlantic stream to the Ohio river. The route eventually selected coincided largely with the old Braddock road so constantly used. From ^ See his " Recollections of Ten Years Passed in the Valley of the Mississippi." He also wrote a "Geography and History of the Western States." - In a manuscript letter preserved by the Pennsylvania Historical. Society, W. Smith, writing of the departure of a Maryland family to live in Kentucky, says: "I regret much not being present at your family dinner, especially as I wished to have seen Polly Nicholas before her departure to the new world. Poor girl. I am sure it must greatly distress her and all her friends at the separation which may be called a farewell forever." T. Buchanan Read's "Wagoner of the Alleghanies" gives a picture of country mountain travel in Revolutionary days. Helen Hunt Jackson in her "Emigravit'' makes a delightful figurative use of this flight to a new land. 148 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE its eastern terminus it received the name of the " Cumberland national road." It was destined to be not only of great benefit to travelers in journeying to the new country, but also an important union- making factor, as will be seen later. ir>EXCK OF OOVKRXOR ST. CLAIK, MARIETTA CHAPTER XIII PIONEER LIFE IN THE OHIO VALLEY Once beyond the mountains, tlie traveler found abundant x^roof that he was in a new country. Cur- rency was very scarce and was replaced by articles of general value, such as skins and jugs of whisky. Cow-bells were also Nov. 49, 1757. fHOMAS HOWLETT. Cajh given for OTTER, FOX, 6c MINK S K I N S, At JOHN HAGUE & Go's Store, at RockETT'J. AT T U.,,,:..^ such a necessity that they became an ac- ceptable tender. Small currency was scarce, and a silver dollar was often cut into half dollars or quarters with an axe or chisel. Unscrupulous persons sometimes converted a dollar into five quarters of "cut money," as it was called. Chickens were worth ten cents each, butter twelve and a half cents to twenty-five cents a pound, cheese sixteen cents, and salt six cents a pound. Peaches could be had for twenty-five cents a bushel. Apples were very scarce, since the trees required a longer time to mature. Beef sold at four cents a pound and deer meat at three. The entire carcass of a deer was worth only a dollar. Mutton was not eaten, since the wool crop would thereby be lessened. Wool sold for five cents a pound. Sheep had to be jDenned at 149 150 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE night to protect them from the wolves, although it was a common experience that they were rarely attacked by bears. The panther was the most dreaded wild animal.^ Horses were mostly of Sj)anisli A PIOXKER ADVKNTIIRE WITH PANTHERS breed, being brought up from the Floridas and vary- ing in price from sixty to eighty dollars. Corn was sold at fifty cents a bushel. A single log cabin could be built for one hundred and fifty dollars, and a double one for a hundred dollars more. Feather beds were a great luxury and readily brought six dollars each. A feather bed was a bride's dowry. ^ Dennie's Portfolio describes a pioneer finding a panther caught in his trap and two others trj^ng to release the prisoner. Summon- ing his wife, "an intrepid Amazon,'' and bidding her act as a rest for his gun, he succeeding in killing the three animals. The cut reproduced herewith accompanies the description in the magazine in 1812. PIONEER LIFE IN THE OHIO VALLEY 151 The family washing was done on the river bank, where driftwood and water was abundant. A "smoke-house" for curing meat and a crib for stor- ing corn were adjuncts to every cabin. Cellars were unknown and butter and meat were preserved by hanging them in the well. A rail pen was con- structed for housing pigs to be fattened, but the old hogs were allowed to feed in the woods. Bells were placed about their necks as well as on cows and horses when "turned out" to pasture. Such animals were notched in the ears and the earmarks of indi- vidual owners entered with the county clerk. A registered mark was sufficient to reclaim an animal within five miles of the owner's residence.^ Settlers living near the river could depend upon fishing to supplement their food. One kind of fish in the Ohio river was often of enormous proportions, and was called "catfish" because of the "whiskers" projecting from each side of its mouth. Others called it a "bull-head " from the disproportionate size of its head. "The chills" and the various forms of malarial fevers arising from the " damps" were treated by liberal doses of "bitters" manufactured from the prescription of an "Indian doctor." The bark of some tree soaked in whisky furnished the necessary ingredients. A serious illness, a malformation, or sometimes even a temporary ache, would call for the services of a " faith doctor," with charms and spells, 1 This practice was borrowed from the old world. The use of the word " earmark" to indicate figuratively recognizable marks in an author's writings is as old as Shakespeare. 152 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE whose value depended entirely upon the faith placed in him by the patient. A seventh son or a son who had never seen his father was supposed to possess this mysterious power. "Water witching," or finding the proper place to dig a well for drinking water, was sometimes i^racticed as an avocation. These witchers were also supposed to be able to "charm" a rifle and so render its aim useless. The small game did not differ generally from the species on the eastern side of the mountains, but the opossum was a marvel to many people from New England and to all ^ -* * ~^ -^ • EurojDeans. it was the first marsupialian commonly found. Per- sons of an inquiring mind kept captive opossums to determine whether the young THK oposscM wPTP r p a 1 1 V pvnrlpfl From the Royal (London) Magazine. 176S NVtltJ lUcliiy fc!XUUeu from the mother's pouch where they were carried. The animal was pictured in the European magazines, but sadly out of proportion with surrounding objects. Many also marveled at the giant sycamore trees ^ along the banks of streams, often showing the green parasite, mistletoe, growing from their smooth white bark. The redbud and the magnolia added beauty to ^ When he visited Marietta colony, Dr. Cutler saw a fallen syca- more tree into which he says six horsemen could have ridden abreast. A standing tree measured forty feet in circumference. It was said that a Missouri justice used the section of a hollow sycamore for an office. PIONEER LIFE IN THE OHIO VALLEY 153 tlie woods. The wild grapevines reached enormous proportions, festooning themselves from the branches of the trees. Tlie European migrants wondered at the humming-bird , which they some- times called the su- gar-bird, the fly-bird, or the murmur-bird. They had never seen wild oxen (buffalo) nor wild "torckies" (turkeys). They were amazed at the flocks of wild pigeons which darkened the air. They watched the slanting course of the flying squirrel. Tlie fireflies they likened to the dreaded mosquitoes hunting with lamps for their victims, and some, it was said, believed them to be fiery spirits which ventured from the lower world at nightfall. The rattlesnake was a terror to the newcomers, as it was to every person wlio crossed the Alleghanies. Travelers exhausted prose, and used poetry to describe where glistening lay, extended o'er the path With steadfast, piercing eye, and gathering wrath - A large grim rattlesnake, of monstrous size. Three times tliree feet his length enormous lies; A FORKST ADVKXTl'KE 154 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE His pointed scales in regular rows engraved ; His 3^ellow sides with wreaths of dusky waved; Fix'd to the spot, with staring eyes, we stood! He, slowly moving, sought th' adjoining wood.^ The l)lack snake was feared even more, because it was thought to have the power of " charming" its victim. Many of the newcomers were compelled to acquire a taste for the food which Mother Nature supplied to them whilst their fields were being prepared for cul- tivation. All enjoyed the product of the sugar maple, although some were surprised at its scanty yield. Over in Europe it had been popularly supposed that the sugar could be shoveled or scraped from the branches of the maple trees. ^ Few found the pawpaw palatable. They likened it to the taste of the pine- ap23le. The " pomj)ion " (pumpkin), which they learned to plant between their rows of Indian corn, was not at first agreeable to the taste ; neither v»^as the wild persimmon. The buckeye was a keen disap- pointment, since its showy fruit was not edible.^ The ^ These stanzas and the accompanying illustration are taken from Dennie's Portfolio, 1806. 2 The project of making sugar from the maple in North America in quantities and at a cost to compete with the sugar made from the cane attracted the attention of various promoters. The Hol- land Land Company brought over a sugar refiner, and at one time purchased 132,000 acres of woodland for this purpose, but the pro- ject soon proved impossible. See the " Journals of John Linck- laen" (Putnam's). Many anti-slavery people would use only maple sugar, since slave labor was connected with the manufacture of cane sugar. 3 The Indians had noticed the resemblance of the fruit of the buckeye {aesculus glabra) to the iris of tlie deer's eye, and called the tree " lietuck" or buck's eye. They applied the same term to a man with a powerful eye. The white men of Ohio and northern Ken tuck}' used the soft wood of the buckeye tree for cabins and for fashioning bowls and cradles. The bark was used as a dyestuff and the fruit as a substitute for soap. In 1834 a '' buckeye dinner *' was given in Cincinnati. In the campaign of 1840 the buckeye PIONEER LIFE IN THE OHIO VALLEY 155 / Europeans soon learned to remove the liiisk fi'om the grain of Indian corn by soaking it in lye made of wood ash, and so convert it into "hominy." By mixing beans with the corn, another Indian food, "succotash," was produced. When ground, the corn w^as made into cakes and bread, whilst the parched grains constituted the most convenient form of food for the hunter to prepare and to carry. The American bison, commonly called the buffalo, was described as "larger than an ox, has short black horns, with a large beard under his chin, and his head so full ^^^ of hair that it ^M^ f falls over his eyes and gives ^^ WK ,. '^ him a frightful look." From such descrip- tions, cuts of the buffalo were made and appeared in the eastern magazines. It was said to be the only species of w^ild cow to be found in America. The contour of the farms as laid out in the uplands of the Northwest Territory differed from that on the eastern side of the mountains and south of the Ohio. In the latter country, the farmer chose the middle of a valley as a starting point and extended his culti- cabin was carried in processions because the opponents of "William Henry Harrison, of Ohio, said he was fitted for nothing better than to sit in a log cabin and drink hard cider. Gradually the people of Ohio became known as " Buckeyes." 15G THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE vatecl land in all directions toward the adjacent mountain ridges. The farms thus resembled an amphitheater, the farmhouse occupying the lowest part and the mountain ridges forming the boundaries. The surveys were made by private arrangement. Under government control, the surveys in the North- west Territory were made in an arbitrary manner by means of long lines, without regard to hill or valley. Because of malaria and the spring freshets, the western farmer chose the higher part of his tract for the location of his house. The eastern farmer saw a decided objection to this j)i'^ctice, since it often required the farm products to be hauled up hill to the house. So easy had been the acquirement of land in the outlying districts of the coast plain, that many believed the land west of the mountains could be acquired by simply taking possession of it. Some hastened to make " tomahaw^k titles" to large tracts by marking the trees with their initials, climbing even twenty to forty feet from the ground in an effort to gain a surer preemption. The refusal of the government to recognize these squatter claims was quite largely the cause of the borderer's feeling that the law was always tyrannical.^ ^ The United States refused to acknowledge these "tomahawk improvements," and sent troops in 1785, to evict the settlers from near the Ohio. These "squatters" had posted notices for a convention to organize a government, on the assumption that "all mankind have an undoubted right to pass into every vacant country and there to form their constitutions." The government refused to recognize such an argument, and prevented the election of dele- gates. Yet the commanding officer of the troops reported that, not- withstanding his warnings, settlers "continue to enter the public lands by. forties and fifties." Later Congress passed preemption PIONEER LIFE IN THE OHIO VALLEY 157 Sometimes the only shelter of the pioneer was a roof of wild cucumber tree bark, laid across poles. The log house for the first residence of a family was a square structure, frequently with but one room, and a " lean-to'' on the outside. Upon the marriage of a member of the family another cabin was constructed a few feet away from the old, and facing its front. The intervening space being covered, a "double cabin" was the result. A wedding was the most interesting event in the monotonous routine of pioneer settlement life. The ceremony must occur before noon in order to furnish the expected dinner for the guests. The groom and his attendants rode on horseback, accompanied by his family, from the house of his father. It was the custom to oppose many good-natured obstacles to the progress of the groom, such as felling trees or tying grapevines across the way. Or an ambuscade might be formed to send consternation to the party by sud- den rifle shots on all sides. It was also customary for several young men to leave the party about a mile from the bride's house and make a dasli through the woods for the bottle of whisky which was always awaiting the party on this occasion. The victor returned to extend the courtesy of his prize to the groom, his attendants, and then to the other members of the procession. After the ceremony came the dinner and then the dancing commenced, some- times continuing well into the following morning. laws, giving not more than 160 acres at a nominal price to a settler who inhabited and improved the land. Cooper's "The Prairie" describes a typical squatter family opposed to law and the church. 158 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE The next day a number of skilled hewers assembled at the spot chosen for the home of the new couple and prepared the material for their house. The second day all came to- gether for the " raising." A few of the most skilled work- men remained a third day to smooth off the floor, make a "clapboard " door, and a split slab table. The bed was made by placing a forked stick in the floor at the proper place and running poles in two directions to the walls. Clapboards formed the bed springs. A few pegs were placed about the walls, a huge fireplace built of sticks or stones and plastered with mud, and a new Amer- ican home had been created. A WKSTKRN IIOMK CHAPTER XIV EVIDENCES OF THE HIGHER LIFE OF THE PEOPLE These voluntary exiles to a strange land had left behind them all opportunities for higher cultivation, but they realized that they must at least jDlant the seeds of such institutions in order to have them grow with their own lives. Because the necessary money was lacking, education by the state was largely a theory ; but the national public lands would supply the means. Hence Dr. Cutler, in his bargain with Congress, succeeded in having not only a section in each township set aside for public schools,^ but two townships, to be located in the Ohio Company's lands, "for the support of a literary institution." In 1795 these townships were located on high ground near the center of the companj^'s purchase, and sur- veyors were sent to lay out a town as the seat of the proposed college. In accord with its mission the town was named Athens, and in 1809 the Ohio Uni- versity was opened. Likewise the Symmes j^urchase carried a gift of one township, "for the purpose of establishing an academy or other public schools and seminaries of learning." This township was eventually located west of the ^The "school funds" so created, although not always the most judiciously administered, have contributed to some extent to pro- duce the excellent public schools of the northwest. However, the state and local taxation for schools has usually yielded from seven to ten times as much per year as the income from the land fund. 159 160 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE Symmes land, and the name of Oxford as suitable for a college site, was given to the town laid out in it. Here, in 1824, the Miami University was opened, the name being taken from the adjacent river. ^ In 1805 the inhabitants of the Western Reserve, not to be surpassed by their neighbors toward the south, opened the Erie Literary Society Seminary at Burton. The people were Presbyterians or Congregationalists, and wished an institution of higher learning to pre- pare young men for the ministry. The presbytery withdrew from the Burton seminary, and in 1826 opened the Western Reserve College at Hudson, Ohio. It was modeled after Yale, even to the buildings and general appearance of the surroundings.^ A few years later the communistic experiment of Oberlin Institute (now College) was begun, with an object the same as that of Western Reserve. The education of clergymen for the Episcopal church led to the establishment, largely by subscriptions secured in England, of Kenyon College at Gambler, Ohio. Lord Ken3^on and Lord Gambler were two of the English benefactors. These colleges were of small proportions, and alike suffered the vicissitudes of the frontier. During the first quarter of a century the Ohio University gradu- ated only twenty-five students. Adverse state legisla- tion robbed it of the larger part of its endowment. Miami University was for many years no better than ^Both Ohio University and Miami Universitj^ are now partly supported by the state of Ohio. - Tlie colleo;e site was purchased from the company which had bought the Western Reserve lands from the state of Connecticut. Hence the name of the college. EVIDENCES OF THE HIGHER LIFE OF THE PEOPLE 161 a grammar school. At one time the faculty of the Western Eeserve College was reduced to one professor and one tutor. The experiment of manual labor, which has time and again appeared as a "fad" in higher education, was tried and abandoned by Ober- lin, Kenyon, and Western Eeserve.^ Indeed, much could not be expected of these embry- onic institutions, considering the slow development of the parent colleges in the east. The Revolutionary war had sadly interfered with the higher life of the people. Newspapers had decreased in numbers, churches were put to other uses, and the few colleges in existence were hampered. Of these three factors the colleges rallied most slowly. In 1800 Harvard was one hundred and sixty-four years old,^ William and Mary one hundred and seven, and Yale one hun- dred. Yet Harvard averaged but forty graduates annually, Yale about the same number, while William and Mary had but fifty students. Yale's faculty may ^ The colleges mentioned above continue active at this time, form- ing a few of the forty-one institutions in Ohio entitled to grant degrees. In the first edition of his "American Commonwealth," Mr. Bryce said some sarcastic things about the "universities" of Ohio. On the state aid granted to higher education, see a mono- graph by Professor H. B. Adams, of Johns Hopkins University, in a series issued by the commissioner of Education (1890), and a paper by Professor G. W. Knight, of the Ohio State University, in vol. 1 of the publications of the American Historical Association. 2 For an anniversary of Harvard College, in 1836, Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote a "song" descriptive of the small beginnings of that place of learning. One stanza runs : And who was on the Catalogue When college was begun? Two nephews of tlie President, And the Professor's son: (They turned a little Indian by As brown as any bun) ; Lord! how the seniors knocked about The freshman class of one! 162 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE be considered typical. There was a professor of mathematics, a professor of languages, and a professor of chemistry, mineralogy, and geology. The last named chair had been only recently created. The president of the college was the professor of divinity. ( . A Front VIKW of V.M.E.COLI.I.GK, .ind the COLLEGE CirAI'EI.. NiwHAvtN A large share of the college teaching in these early times was done by tutors. The entrance requirements were ability to read and parse certain Latin authors, skill in making Latin verse, and a "good testimony of past blameless behavior." The course of study embraced arithmetic and geometry, rhetoric, logic and ethics, physics, metaphysics, politics and divinity, with a vast amount of drill in the ancient languages, such as Latin, EVIDENCES OF THE HIGHER LIFE OF THE PEOPLE 103 Greek, Hebrew, Chaldaic, and Syriac. There was but one course and no electives. The rigid treatment which had been found necessary for the student in earlier days gradually relaxed. Undergraduates found in any disorder could be seized by the night watch and held until the college authorities arrived. If students were out of lodgings after nine o'clock IK t HI ^ UUlii they could be held accountable for any damage. Public stripes in the hall were administered for grave offenses, but tutors were sometimes dismissed for striking pupils. Latin was the official language, and in Harvard^ ^ The Columbian Magazine, December, 1788, describes the build- ings shown in the cut of Harvard college. "The building on the left, erected in 1762, was burned in 1764 and rebuilt at public expense and called Harvard Hall. The central build- ing was built in 1699 by Hon. Wm. Stoughton for a dormitory. It was taken down in 1780. The building on the right was erected in 1720 at the expense of the province and was called Mas- sachusetts Hall." 164 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE students were forbidden to use their "mother tongue" except in delivering English orations. The api^oint- ment of Professor Silliman to a chair of natural sciences in Yale, about 1800, marks the introduction of scientific studies into the old classical curriculum of the colleges. In 1765, a medical college had been OLD BUILDINGS OF WILLIAM AND MARY COLLEGE opened in Philadelphia by William Shippen, Ben- jamin Rush, and others. The people now began to feel the first impulse of national pride in their home affairs. Cuts and descriptions of the American colleges appeared in tlie magazines. Writers urged the education of young men at home instead of sending them to Europe for that purpose. A general missionary spirit was felt by the eastern sectarian colleges toward the west. Unaided by land grants, graduates from tlie older col- leges founded places of learning with the advanced EVIDENCES OF THE HIGHER LIFE OF THE PEOPLE 165 line of civilization.^ An education was possible in any place. Yet the history of American colleges until 1850 is largely an imitation of old world ideals. There was no originality, no individuality. A cast iron curriculum borrowed from the old world and with no electives prevented any development of the individual. The most laudable feature in the early history of higher education is not the proficiency reached, but the sacrifices under which the work was carried on. No sooner had peace returned than the various religious sects began their militant life with renewed zeal. But the old days of intolerance and persecution were gone. The adoption of a Constitution which in its first amendment forbade any official recognition of creed or sect was the final step in an absolute divorce of church and state. ^ A good-natured rivalry fore- 1 In the present chapter only the early colleges located in the Northwest Territory are mentioned. To describe all the institu- tions born in the widening life of the people is impossible in this space, ir'rinceton is able to trace the dissemination of her doctrines in the following list of educational institutions founded by her alumni; 1770, Queen's Museum, North Carolina, later Zion College; 1776, Timber Ridge, Virginia, grammar school (later Washington College); Hampden-Sidney College, Virginia; 1783, Transylvania University, now Kentucky University ; 1785, Martin Academy, Ten- nessee; Davidson Academy, now University of Nashville; 1790, Log Cabin School, later Jefferson College, now Washington and Jeffer- son, Pennsylvania; 1793, Greenville Colleg«e, Tennessee. -The evolution of an independent church is marked in the addresses sent by various sects to President Washington at the time of his first inauguration. They breathed the hope that he would not favor one denomination above another. They came from the German Lutherans, the General Assemblj^ of the Presbj^terians, the Bishops of the Methodist Episcopal, the United Baptists, the German Reformed, the United Brethren, the Protestant Episcopal, the Reformed Dutch, the Quakers, the Roman Catholics, the Hebrew Congregation, the Universal church, and the Congrega- tional church. To each Washington gave assurance of religious freedom. ' ' All those who conduct tliemselves as worthy members 16G THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE shadowed a coming brotherhood. The Congrega- tional churches of New England and the Presbyterians of the middle states accompanied the westward expan- sion of the people. Tlie Baptists found the southern colonies free from the old colonial persecution of an "established" church, and spread rapidly in that direction. The Church of England had suffered most in the Revolution, but it witli stood the shock of dis- establishment and gradually assumed the aspect of an independent church. The necessary changes were made in the ritual, and two clergymen were sent to England to be ordained so that the line of "apostolic succession" should not be broken.^ The Methodist movement was being introduced from England.^ The of the community are equally entitled to the protection of the civil gov^ernment. * * * xiie liberty of the people of these states in worshiping God agreeably to their consciences is not onl}- among the choicest of tlieir blessings, but also of their rights." See Sparks's "Washington," vol. XII. ^ The Rev. William White, of Pennsylvania, and the Rev. Samuel Provoost, of New York, were the men sent over to be consecrated, although certain churches preferred to recognize Bishop Seabury, who had been consecrated in Aberdeen two years before. There was objection made by the other Protestant sects to the church assuming the name "Protestant"' Episcopal. Complaint was also made because some states turned the forfeited Established Church property over to the Episcopalians. Even after the Revolution the Maryland Legislature appropriated money to build pews for its members in an Episcopal church. -So many stories of the " methods" of this sect reached America that many attended their meetings with no little curiosity and often disappointment. A Connecticut Congregationalist, temporarily liv- ing in Columbia, South Carolina, in 18()o, wrote in his diary: "The order of the exercises did not ditfer from that of Congregational meetings. The singing was better than I had expected it would be. * * * From the account which had been given me of the Methodist meeting. I had expected to 'witness more indecorum and irregularity. Some groans were made; though I did not think they were very natural ones. The preaching did not please me * * * it was all one uninterrupted current of affected pathos and monotonous roar. The audience appeared well dressed and respect- able. I saw nothing like levity exhibited by anybody present. EVIDENCES OF THE HIGHER LIFE OF THE PEOPLE 167 Roman Catholics had not assumed the proportions they were destined to reach when the European emigration should extend beyond the English and the Protestant Germans and French. Newspapers had shown immense powers of recu- peration. Although the first one had been printed in the colonies seventy-one years before the Revolution- ary war, there were but thirty-seven in existence when the war was finally commenced. During the war they decreased to less than twenty, but when the contro- versy arose over the adoption of the Constitution, the demand for a public hearing increased their number to sixty-two. From simply stating bare facts, they began to assume a controversial and literary character. By 1800 there were at least one hundred and ninety regular newspapers and magazines published in the United States. In 1784 the daily Pennsylvania Packet appeared, and was published continuously until 1847. In 1810 there were more than twenty daily papers regularly issued. No doubt the opportunity for publishing results of investigations, as well as the addition of scientific studies to the college curriculum, contributed to the zeal for scientific experiments and investigation which marked the close of the last century. The Montgolfiers, in France, had brought to a successful end their experiments with a hot air balloon. Reports of the ascent and descent of their sheep, cock, and duck reached America and were pictured in the maga- The house was filled by people. All those in the gallery were black." Diary of Edward Hooker in the first report of the His- torical Manuscripts Commission, Washington, 1897. 168 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE zines, although with very little appreciation of the necessary proportions of the balloon. A number of similar experiments were undertaken in America. In 1793, Blanchard, "the bold aeronaut," made an ascent from the prison yard in Philadelphia. He was dressed in a plain blue suit, a cocked hat and white feath- ers. The "boat" attached to the bal- loon was painted blue and was spangled. The balloon was of a yellowish colored silk highly var- nished, over which there was a strong net work. Blanchard bore a letter from President Washing- ton, who witnessed the ascent, request- ing people to render aid to him. He de- scended in New Jer- sey, having covered revived the old-time Uiir (lor^nr ofd^ Of^^^ ^''^^' " " fifteen miles. ^ Such ventures project of a flying machine. The coming of the genius of invention, in which the American people have so signally excelled, was ^ Condensed from Dunlap's American Daily Advertiser. The cuts of the Montgoltier balloon are from the Boston Magazine, 1784. EVIDENCES OF THE HIGHER LIFE OF THE PEOPLE 169 foretold in the descriiDtions of processes and appli- ances printed in the magazines. One writer describes a drill machine for seeding ; another a windmill ; a third a sun-dial. A glass chimney for a candle is suggested. As the height of buildings inci'eased the danger from fire grew and several designs for fire-escapes ap- peared. One of these, which employed a bag for lowering tlie rescued person, is not, in principle, un- like some of the mod- ern apparatus. A correspondent de- scribed at some length the manufac- ture of salt from sea water in New Hamp- shire. The Avater was let into pans and evaporated by heat. Strangely enougli, the experiments along two lines des- tined to cause the most lasting results to the American people created the least mention. The manufacture of the Watt condensing engine had been barely commenced in England when the Revolutionary war deprived the American colonies of its benefit. In any event, the policy of England in prohibiting the 170 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE exportation of manufacturing machinery would have had the same result. Soon after the close of the war, a Columbia college professor in New York city delivered a course of lectures on the possibility of harnessing a steam 1 engine to a flour- ing mill and sev- eral projects of this k i n d were dis- cussed but with no results. The many noble water courses in America and the rajDidly growing commerce sug- gested constantly the pressing need of an improved me- chanical method for propelling a boat. In 1 7 8 4 , Washington wrote in his diary at Bath, now Berkely Springs, West Vir- gin i a : "Was showed the Model of a Boat constructed by the ingenious Mr. Eumsey for ascending rapid currents by mechanism ; the principles of this were not only shown & fully explained to me but to my very great satisfaction, exhibited in practice in private under A SUOGESTIOX FOR A FIRE ESCAPE EVIDENCES OF THE HIGHER LIFE OF THE PEOPLE 171 the injunction of Secres}-, until he saw the effect of an application he was about to Make to the Assembly of this State for a reward." This mechanism depended upon the action of the current on certain "settino" poles ;" but Rumsey three years later attached steam power to his boat, securing motion by admitting water at the prow and expelling it from the stern. He was granted rights of navigat- ing streams in Vir- ginia, New York, and Maryland. Meanwhile, John Fitch, a wan- dering Connecticut watchmaker, was experimenting with a steam en- gine which he had constructed in 1786 and which he placed in a skiff on the river near Philadelphia. He first tried and re- jected stern paddles and then placed them in sets upon the sides of the boat, moving them alternately by con- necting beams. The next year he built a larger boat, a cut of which was shown in the Columhian Magazine. His third boat was sixty feet long and was considered a complete success. The paddles were placed at the stern. The boat was enlarged in 1790 and ran as a packet for several months between Philadelphia and * From the Pennsylvania Magazine, 1776. A NEW HAMPSHIRE SALT WORKS 172 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE Burlington carrying several thousand passengers in that time. But the company could not be persuaded to put more money in the venture and disbanded, leaving Fitch without capital although holding several state patents. Other successful experiments were made by Samuel Morey, Nicholas I. Rooseveldt, and by John Cox Stevens, who built a stern propeller. Fitch, although penniless continued his experiments, having been granted a patent by the United States in 1791. It is said that his death seven years later was caused by his own hand. A much more brilliant inventor, Robert Fulton, who had lived in London and Paris and had attracted great attention by his submarine boat, was assisted financially by Robert R. Livingston, Chan- cellor of the state of New York, himself an inventor and a patron of arts and letters. In 1807, Fulton secured an engine from England and placed it in a ves- sel on the Hudson. The trial was made on August 11, 1807, and tlie Clermont, named from Living- ston's country seat, steamed from New York to Albany in thirty-two hours. Six passengers were carried at their own risk. Thereafter the Clermont was run as a packet between these cities. The passengers were exposed to showers of spray from the uncovered paddle wheels and were obliged to sleep in a kind of cabin on the roof which covered and protected the boiler. The steering apparatus was imperfect and the vessel could not turn itself at Albany. Before the following sum- mer, the Clermont was improved and the inventor and his bride were carried as passengers on the first trip. EVIDENCES OF THE HIGHER LIFE OF THE PEOPLE 173 The Car of Neptime, Paragon, Chancellor Livingston, and the Kent were soon added to the line of packets. The Clermont was really the twelfth boat built in America to be propelled by steam ; yet it was the first to secure sufficient financial aid to make it more than an experiment. The work of Rumsey and Fitch was well supplemented by that of Fulton. Fitch charged Fulton with hav- ing stolen his ideas from some papers which once hap- pened to fall into Fulton's hands. The claims ad- vanced by these men and some minor contributors to steam naviga- tion engendered a endless. The other invention which so affected American political as well as economic life attracted much less attention. It was the cotton-gin, given to the world in 1792 by Eli Whitney, a Connecticut schoolmaster, who was residing temporarily in Georgia. By its use a laborer could clean from the seed about two hundred times the amount of cotton he was able to clean with- out it. In 1792 the United States shipped to Europe 189,500 pounds of cotton. In 1803 over 41,000,000 pounds were exported and slave labor and the slavery question assumed a new aspect. England, desiring to sell British manufactures in dispute which promises to be 174 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE the American colonies, had never offered encourage- ment to inventors, although certain of the colonies had given monopolies or patents on individual inven- tions. After the Revolution the states began to issue patents and exclusive rights. The Constitution pro- vided for such reward to inventors by the general government, and in conformity with an act of Con- gress in 1790 the two Secretaries of War and State and the Attorney-General were made a board for con- sidering applications. The first issue was to Samuel Hopkins "for making pot and j^earl ashes." Patents for making candles, flour, and meal, punches for types, and distilling followed. During the first three years sixty-seven patents were issued. Tlie number continued small until the War of 1812 threw America on her own resources and so secured an industrial independence. j>'i CHAPTER XV THE NATIONAL SEAT OF GOVERNMENT The visible parts of the Union had not assumed much proportion at the beginning of the new cen- tury. The first seat of the Revolutionary govern- ment, Philadelphia, had never been regularly chosen. The first Continental Congress met in thg^t city, since it was the most central and most accessible. The war came on and the Congress was obliged to assume the powers of government. It continued to sit in Phila- delphia for ten years, except when driven out by the enemy. After the close of the war some country boys, who had been enlisted near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, but had never seen active service, drove Congress from Philadeli^hia because there was no money to pay them. Thus that city lost her chance of becoming the permanent seat of government. In its infancy the national agency must look for protection to the state in which it was located. Driven from pillar to post in the vicissitudes of war and the subsequent disorders. Congress by default allowed Washington to be inaugurated and the con- stitutional government to be set up in the rebuilt '* Federal Hall" in New York city. But the members from the south were not satisfied. They recalled the early promise of the Potomac river, the natural thoroughfare to the west, and by combina- tions blocked every attempt to locate the capital to 175 176 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE the north^vard. Self-interest has rarely been more manifest than in the triangular contest between New York and New England, the middle states, and the south, for this supposed prize. At last, by a bargain between Hamilton and Jef- ferson,^ Hamilton obtained the assumption of the state debts, the capital went to Philadelphia for ten years to satisfy her lodging-house kee^Ders and merchants, and was then to be carried to the Potomac " at some space between the mouth of the East- ern Branch and Con- ococheague . " ^ New York protested in vain. The money which she had spent in remodeling *' Federal Hall," and on the building of a presi- dent's house, was lost. According to tliis agreement, after a residence of • ' J etferson thought he had been " tricked"' by Hamilton in this deal. For particulars see Jefferson's Writings, vol. III. ; Hamilton's Works, vol. III. ^ Conococheague creek flows through Franklin county, Pennsyl- vania, and empties into the Potomac, not far from Hagerstovvn, Maryland. The Eastern branch of the Potomac is now called Ana- costia creek. lt>^ mouth lies inside the District. The commis- sioners had therefore an option of over one hundred miles of the Potomac, but chose the extreme lower part. Subsequently the limit of choice was extended to some ten miles below the moiith of the Eastern Branch in order to secure a location for a navy yard. FKDEUAL HALL. JN'KW VOKK THE NATIONAL SEAT OF GOVERNMENT 177 one year in New York, the embryonic government, in the autumn of 1790, carted its belongings to Phila- delphia for the allotted ten years to await the selec- tion of the Potomac site and the erection of the new buildings. The limits assigned for the site on the Potomac approached on the south within a few miles of Washington's lands, and to him was given a general oversight of the locating and building of the capital. It was a fresh evidence of public confidence in the unselfishness and fidelity of that great man. Associated with him by an act of Congress were three commissioners : Ex-Governor Johnson, of Maryland ; Daniel Carroll, who owned extensive lands within the limits ; and Dr. David Stuart (Stewart), who resided at Abingdon, a plantation a few miles above Alexandria. He had married the Avidow of Mrs. Washington's son. The town of Alexandria had been located several years before at the head of tide-water navigation on the Potomac. The junction of the Eastern Branch with the Potomac proper, just above Alexandria, seemed to afford facilities for shipping interests and a navy yard so essential to the new capital, and here was located by the commissioners the ten miles square which the Constitution demanded for the seat of government. In April, 1791, a corner boundary stone was set with Masonic ceremonies at Jones's Point, Virginia, and ten-mile lines were run at right angles, from whose ends the square was completed. The land enclosed thereby was named the Territory (later changed to District) of Columbia, and to the city to be located within it was given by universal 178 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE consent the name of Washington. The district embraced Alexandria, Georgetown, Hamburg, Car- rollsburg, and several other small villages.^ Andrew THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA Ellicott, a noted surveyor of Pennsylvania,had charge of running the boundary lines. Major L'Enfant, a French engineer who had come ^ Columbia is the feminine of Columbus, although it is close to the Spanish Colombia. The tract ceded by Maryland in 1788, and Vir- ginia in 1789, contained originally one hundred square miles, according to the Constitution of the United States, Art. 1, Sec. VIII., 17. In 1846 Congress retroceded that portion lying in Vir- ginia, reducing the size of the District to seventy-two square miles. THE NATIONAL SEAT OF GOVERNMENT 179 over with D'Estaing and remained after the close of the war, was employed to draw a plan for a city, and with plans of the cities of Europe before him he evolved a union of the rectangular and radiating systems. It is sometimes called a gridiron laid on several wheels. At the hubs the principal buildings were to be located.^ After numerous meetings of the commissioners at Suter's tavern in Georgetown, they located one of the centers of radiation on the high ground near the junc- tion of the Eastern branch with the Potomac proper, not without susj^icion of undue influence by Carroll, whose lands lay in that direction. Here the caj)itol was located, facing eastward toward the junction.^ A mile away toward the northwest on a bit of high ground in another point of radiation the president's house was located. Between the two sites the trees were felled preparatory to making a broad avenue. It crossed a small stream commonly called Goose Creek but which was renamed the Tiber. In Sej)tember, 1793, the work on the capitol had progressed sufficiently to have the corner-stone laid, President Washington acting as Worshipful Master of ^ This combination was thought to give the readiest aocess to all parts of the cit5^ One result is that fifty-four per cent, or over one-half the city, is occupied by streets, squares, public buildings and small parks. The boasted city of Paris has but twenty-five per cent so occupied. 2 Some residents of Washington blame the cupidity of Carroll in demanding exorbitant prices for his land as the cause of the failure of that portion of the city in front of the capitol to develop. But the higher ground toward the northwest, as well as the placing of the various government buildings in that direction, contributed to draw residences away from the point. Visitors to Washington who are unfamiliar with its local history cannot account for the placing of the goddess on the capitol with her back to the city proper. 180 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE the Masonic ceremonies. The j)roper salutes were fired by the Alexandria Volunteer Artillery. Accord- ing to the newspapers there was "a procession which took place amid a brilliant crowd of spectators of both sexes." Later all repaired to "an extensive booth where an ox of five hundred pounds' weight was barbecued, of which the company generally j)artook with every abundance of other recreation." The difficulties under which the buildings were con- structed in the rural neighborhood and in the absence of workmen and machinery, seemed at times insur- mountable. Numerous prophecies were made that the capital would be removed from so unfavorable a place. The Avorkmen suff'ered from fever on the low grounds. L' Enfant refused to disclose his plans in advance, and when Carroll built a new house, L' Enfant tore it down because it stood in a proposed avenue. Carroll held his lands at such high rates that no one could purchase. David Burns, another land owner, obstructed progress by refusing to sell to the Commissioners. The advertised auction sale of lots in the new city attracted few buyers. Between sessions of Congress, Washington spent most of his time on the site trying to hasten the work. At times he almost despaired. Jeff'erson openly warned the residents that if everything was not in readiness for Congress at the required time (1800) , the delay might prove fatal to their hopes. The members of Congress began to gather in the new city in November, 1800, and many, especially those from New York and Pennsjdvania, made no effort to conceal tlieir disgust. Secretary Wolcott THE NATIONAL SEAT OF GOVERNMENT 181 complained about leaving "the comforts of Phila- delphia to go to the Indian place with the long name in the woods on the Potomac." The official ^papers had been sent down in " seven large boxes and four or five smaller ones." Only the Senate wing of the capitol was ready for Congress, and the House was crowded into such narrow quarters under the Senate that it seemed impossible at first to find room for the reporters inside the bar. There was no gallery in the Senate chamber since that body was partly executive in its functions and frequently held secret sessions. Away through the cleared line of woods, one could see the sandstone walls of the President's house. Between were deep morasses covered with alder bushes. On another high bit of ground the national church was to be erected, but thus far the site was not even cleared of trees. Where Congressmen had pictured an elegant city, was nothing but scrub oaks on the higher ground and tangled bushes on the marshy flats. There were only two comfortable residences, in which lived Carroll and Young, two original owners of the land. The unfinished Blodgett hotel, funds for which had been raised by a lottery, and a row of partly finished houses added to the dreariness. But notwithstanding the inconveniences, all accepted the permanent housing of the govern- ment as a prophecy of better things. Jurisdiction over the territory had been granted by Virginia and Maryland. The federal government at last had a title to a spot of earth free from any state. Congress was to assemble in a building for which it was not indebted to the selfish interests of any state. There- 182 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE fore, President Adams, in his reply to tlie addresses of Congress, congratulated them " on assembling for the first time in this solemn temple." * William Cobbett, a political scribbler of the day, ridiculed this apos- trophe of Adams as "cant." He declared that the solemn temple would not hold two hundred persons. *'The fact is the city is a mere ragged wilderness in which more money has been sunk than the whole district for twenty miles around would bring." Meager as were the facilities for the reception of the government, they were fully as liberal as the con- ception of the members of Congress of the future scope or present needs of the Union. State interests and state needs were everything ; national demands were nothing. Grudgingly Congress voted the money necessary to supplement the cash gifts of Maryland and Virginia for completing the government build- ings. The revenue arising from the sale of the lots, it was supposed, would construct the streets and improve the public grounds. But the contraction following the Hamilton inflation brought such visions to an untimely end. The speculating company headed by Robert Morris, which had bought so many lots, went down with a crash, and Morris was sent to Prune street prison, Philadelphia, for debt. The aqueduct which was to convey water from the Great Falls to run through and purify the streets, as was done in ancient Rome, was not begun. The original 1 Robert Morris, of Philadelphia, was a senator, and wrote from Washington: "We want nothing here but houses, cellars, kitchens, well-informed men, amiable women, and other trifles of this kind to make our city perfect."' He declared with some irony that it was the very best city in the world for a future residence. THE NATIONAL SEAT OF GOVERNMENT 183 plan of having no house higlier tlian forty feet nor lower than thirty-fiYe, and requiring an outer wall of brick or stone, was modified. Any kind of house was welcome which would afford the much-needed lodg- ings, and save the journey to Georgetown across the " Tiber " and over the very bad road.' Over at the President's house, Mrs. John Adams was writing doleful letters to her friends about the great bare rooms which would require thirty servants to keep in order ; about the lack of bells in the house ; and the imjDos- sibility of getting suffi- cient wood cut to keep warm, althoucjh the house was surrounded by woods. Her driver had lost his way in bringing her from Philadelphia to Wash- ington through the thinly settled country. All the surroundings proved an unpleasant contrast to her native New England. Ten years before, Congress had voted $14,000 to furnish Washington's residence in Philadelphia, and the same sum for his successor. This furniture was sold when tlie government moved to Washington, and ^Tom Moore, the Irish poet, visited Washington in 1805, and wrote in his "Lines to Thomas Hume" : In fancy now beneath the twilight gloom. Come, let me lead thee oer tliis "second Rome!" Where tribunes rule, where dusky Davl bow. And what was Goose Creek once is Tiber now;— This embryo capital, where Fancy sees Squares in morasses, obelisks m trees. THK PRKSIDENT'S MANSION, 1810 184 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE $15,000 given to President Adams to furnish the new house. But when it was found that he had used a portion of this sum to buy seven horses, a carriage and a market wagon, Congress declared that the next president, Jefferson, must content himself with the proceeds of the sale of the furniture which was "decayed, out of repair or unfit for use," and whatever unexpended balance his predecessor had left. The ownership of a residence and the centraliza- tion of the government in one place seemed to give the nascent Union strength, and to inspire hope for its future. Men began to regard service in the Con- gress at Washington as almost equal to serving in their respective state legislatures. The Union was growing in the affections and esteem of the people, but the capital city remained long a Aveakling. A traveler in 1807 described it : It remains, after ten years of expensive fostering, a rickety infant — unable to go alone. . . . The Federal city is in reality neither town nor village. — It may be compared to a hunting-seat, where state sportsmen may run horses, and fight cocks; kill Time under cover, and shoot Public-Service flj^ing. ... A few scat- tered hamlets here and there indicate a sordid and dependent popu- lation ; and 2 or 3 edifices upon distant hills. . . . There sits the President upon a summer recess — like a pelican in the wilderness or a sparrow upon the house top. . . . Imagine the members of both Houses on a frosty morning trudging along through mire and snow — like so many pilgrims incurring voluntary hardships on a journey of penance; and you will no longer wonder that the House is never full at the roll-call. Another visitor tells of the capital without inhabi- tants, and a dockyard without ships. During the winter the members suffered from the draughts which THE NATIONAL SEAT OF GOVERNMENT 185 penetrated the unfinished building. A speaker quoted the couplet Calling the winds, through long arcades to roar, Proud to catch cold, at a Venetian door. The doorkeeper of the House was authorized to "erect a shelter for the purpose of protecting from the weather the firewood that may be required by the two Houses of Congress, the expense to be paid out of the contingent , . fund." He was also -.^, , ^-^ --^ given an additional (^ r- assistant and two r^ ""- — ^--*^ horses for collecting "^^ firewood. John -^ RandoliDh of Roa- noke used to ride on horseback a c c o m - panied by his dogs through the mud from Georgetown to the capitol to at- tend the daily sessions. Pennsylvania avenue was not supplied with brick sidewalks until 1830. It was many years before Washington could rival New York or Philadelphia in fashion and display. The "good times" attending the establishment of the Constitution, and the restoration of financial con- fidence, had brought an extravagance in dress to the large cities. The exaggerations of the French court were imitated, especially in the Marie Antoinette head-dress. Dr. Rush and other physicians in vain showed the danger of women wearing these cushions (FKDM THK MASSACHUSKTTS MAGAZIXK, 1792> 186 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE on their heads in a temperature of ninety degrees. A boy i^araded the streets of Philadelphia wearing a burlesque coiffure. Dr. Cutler was not pleased with the head-dress of Mrs. General Knox, whom he met in New York when he went to negotiate for the Ohio Company's land. "She is sociable and would be very agreeable were it not for her affected singularity in dressing her hair. She seems to mimic a military style, which to me is disgusting in a female. Her hair in front is craped at least a foot high, much in the form of a churn bottom upward, and topped off with black gauze, which hangs iu streamers down her back. Her hair, which is in a large braid, turned up and confined with a monstrous large crooked comb. She reminded me of the monstrous caj) worn by the Marquis Lafayette's valet — commonly called, on this account, the Marquis' Devil.^''^ In men's dress the extravagance took the form of superfluous buttons. A suit of clothes in the possession of the Pennsylvania Historical Society which belonged to Dr. Shippen has twenty-one buttons on the coat, eighteen on the waist- coat and twelve on the small clothes. One writer estimated that £300,000 worth of buttons was im- ported into the United States annually. Tench Coxe^ ^ From "Life and Letters of Manasseh Cutler." Two stanzas of a manuscript poem in the Lenox Library, New York, run: Ladies can you in Conscience say Your useless costly tine Array, As Tossils, Topknots, tlow'ry Stuffs, Jewels and Rings, and heaps of Ruffs; Can you spend Months to curl your hair. And Years to lix the Clothes you wear? Can you spend all the Sabbath Morn, Your Uust and Ashes to adorn! 2 A Philadelphia economist in "A View of the United States." THE NATIONAL SEAT OF GOVERNMENT 187 thought that the importation of " the finer kinds of coat, vest and sleeve buttons, buckles, brooches, breastpins, and other trinkets into this port (Philadel- phia) only is supposed to have amounted in a single year to ten thousand pounds sterling, which cost the wearers above 60,000 dollars." Some economists suggested a law prohibiting extravagance in dress or prescribing a comjDulsory national dress suitable to the climate. Such excesses showed the enervation and weakness to Avhich the growing wealth of the United States might have brought the people, had not a corrective been found in the new west. The first of the spas- modic extensions of territory was now about to come from an undue pressure on the southwestern boundary line ; but a retroactive influence contributing to a larger expansion of life was constantly exerted by the vigorous and often crude frontier on the older por- tions of the country. CHAPTER XVI THE PRESSURE ON THE SOUTHWESTERN BOUNDARY LINE The treaty between England and the United States at the close of the Revolutionary war had left the Spanish in possession of the Floridas, with an uncer- tain boundary line between them and the United States. Spain still clung to her old restrictive com- mercial policy and refused to allow the Americans to use the MississipjDi below the boundary which she claimed.^ The Kentuckians and Tennesseeans were in desperate straits. Their waterways led to New Orleans, where, naturally, their products should have been transferred to ocean vessels. But the Spanish customs officers boarded every boat which floated below the bluff upon which stood the fort and church and at the foot of which were clustered the few wretched huts constituting the Spanish outpost of Natchez. The Americans could raise great crops, but could not reach a market. Tobacco was sold in Kentucky for two dollars a hundred, although it brought nine and a half dollars in Virginia. Indian corn went begging at ninepence the bushel ; flour and pork at twelve shillings the hundred. Congress was ^See chapter VII. England and the United States announced the thirty-first degree north latitude as the boundary, but Spain, which had not been consulted, insisted upon the line of the mouth of the Yazoo river, above the thirty-second degree. That had been the extent of West Florida as set by George III. in 1763. The inter- vening territory was in dispute until the Pincknej' treaty of 1795. 188 SOUTHWESTERN BOUNDARY LINE 189 appealed to, but the country was in no condition to make Spain do anything. Further, many people in the Atlantic states imagined that the products of the Ohio valley, if blocked at New Orleans, would force a way across the mountains to the Atlantic ports, and so be profitable to them. We inherited the idea of a colonial trade from outlying possessions, and have never been able to rid ourselves of it. But it was questionable how long the western people would stand this condition of things.^ Thomas Amis, a North Carolina trader, in 1786, had ventured in a flatboat, loaded with small wares, down the Mississipx3i river below the Spanish boun- dary line. He was seized and imprisoned ; his goods were confiscated ; and he was at length turned loose to tramp his weary way back to his home. No pil- grim returning from the Holy Land showing the stripes which had been inflicted on him by the Turks aroused more indignation than did Amis with his story. He left a trail of hostility to Spain all along his journey. William Swimmer had goods to the value of $1,980 seized. Such cases were numerous. The people decided to wait no longer for the dip- lomatic Congress. George Rogers Clark, of Revolu- tionary fame, was put at tlie head of the military companies hastily organized, and rej)risals were begun upon any Si^anish traders found in American territory. The action created great excitement in the ^ "The Mississippi is fed by our tributaries. It is ours by the law of nature," said the western inhabitants. Madison wrote: "The Mississippi is to them everything. It is the Hudson, the Delaware, the Potomac, and all the navigable waters of the Atlantic states formed into one stream. ' ' 190 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE eastern states and wild rumors prevailed. Some said the westerners contemplated annexing themselves to Spain ; others said to Canada. Some thought they intended petitioning France to repossess the valley. James Wilkinson was supposed to be at the head of the disaffection.* The Spanish commandant at New Orleans, thor- oughly frightened, relinquished his seizures, and in the treaty which Thomas Pinckney made with Spain in 1795 it was provided that " the navigation of the said river, in its whole breadth from its source to the ocean, shall be free." The privilege of warehousing grain at New Orleans until put on board an ocean vessel was also given. If abolished at New Orleans, another port was to be named for this purpose. By the same treaty, the United States gained the disputed land lying between the thirty-first degree and the line of the mouth of the Yazoo river. Here- after the southern line of the United States was to follow the thirty-first degree of latitude from the Mississippi to the Chattahoochee and down that river to the Flint and then in a straight line to the head of the St. Mary's and by that stream to the Atlantic Ocean. Four years later the Spanish evacuated Fort ^ James Wilkinson, of Maryland, was associated with Colonel Benedict Arnold and Captain Aaron Burr in the Revolutionary war. He was prominent in the cabal against Washington, and after removing to Kentucky was concerned in the plots and schemes which marked the post-Revolutionar}^ days. He w^as re- employed in the army chiefly because he was considered dangerous as a citizen. As commander of the arm}' he was associated with the border life in the Mississippi valley, connected with Burr's expedition, and acquitted by a court-martial in the War of 1812; he finally died in Mexico. His questionable career has had few parallels in America. SOUTHWESTERN BOUNDARY LINE 191 Stephens ^ on the Tombigbee and moved down to Mobile. Andrew Ellicott, a Quaker surveyor, ran the accepted line of thirty-one degrees and set up a stone thirty miles south of the fort, bearing on its north face the words, " U. S. Lat. 31°, 1799," and SOUTHEASTERN LAND CESSIONS on its south face, ^'Dominio des M. Carlos IV., 1799." The census of 1800 showed little groups of Americans on the Tombigbee in what had been the disputed Span- ish belt. It was the beginning of the end. The American was slowly pushing the Spaniard from the continent. ^The site of the old Spanish fort, St. Stephens, is known only by- some cellars. A centennial celebration was held in Hay, i899, commemorating the evacuation of the fort. There is a St. Stephens meridian and a St. Stephens base line in Alabama, named and located by Ellicott. This Pennsylvanian was connected with the rmining of a number of state boundaries and the laying out of the city of Washington. He first ascertained the exact height of Niagara Falls. At the time of his death he was a professor in West Point Military Academy, 192 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE In 1787 South Carolina had ceded to the United States goyernment the strip of land, about fourteen miles wide, extending from her present western boundary to the Mississippi.^ North Carolina fol- lowed, two years later, by giving up what is now Tennessee. Georgia also yielded her claims to all lands west of her present boundary, and Congress gave to her, in return, that portion of the ceded South Carolina strip which lay north of her. The remainder of the ceded land was erected into the Mississippi Territory, from which states were to be formed in due time, as had been done in the Northwest Territory. The Gulf region was rounding into shape. Although the treaty of 1795 temporarily removed the greatest grievances against Spain, the time for a national expansion was evidently approaching. The restless southerner passing toward the west had crossed Tennessee and Kentucky, and now turned his expectant gaze upon the fertile Spanish land across the Mississippi. The region north of the Ohio was unattractive to him because its climate unfitted it for any extensive employment of his slave labor and for the crops with which he was most familiar. Many of his fellows who liad forsworn slavery and for that reason migrated north of the Ohio, were now ardent anti-slavery propagandists and likely to prove disa- greeable neiglibors.^ Beyond the Mississippi, Spain ^ These western land claims north of the Ohio river were illus- trated in chapter X., where their cession to the general govern- ment was described. 2 The man who has rid himself of a bad habit or practice is most intolerant of those who refuse to follow his example. Edward Tiffin, first governor of the State of Ohio, left Virginia because of slavery. Mrs. Joseph B. Cartmel, of Springfield, Ohio, possesses a SOUTHWESTERN BOUNDARY LINE 193 had no annoying land system, required few title deeds, employed no surveyors, and made no evictions. Many Americans crossed the river to settle in this Spanish Louisiana, both as individuals and in com- panies. Daniel Boone, offended by the loss of a land suit in Kentucky, had migrated to Spanish territory where he was given a large grant and a military com- mand. Land companies were organized in the east- ern states to speculate in trans-Mississippi grants. The land was comparatively free and govern- ment almost unknown. Allegiance was of no moment. At first Spain encouraged the movement, although the church was alarmed at this influx of heretics. When Spain finally realized the danger of the element she had invited, it was too late. There were Americans at New Madrid, Cape Girardeau, St^jCliarles, Sainte Genevieve, and Saint Louis in northern Louisiana, as well as at New Orleans and Natchitoches in the southern portion. "American interests" would soon be heard pleading for pro- tection. But the crisis was precipitated in Europe. A rumor came that this easy ownership of the Spaniard had passed, by the secret treaty of San Ildefonso in 1800, to France under the aggressive Napoleon.^ manuscript journal of her grandfather, the Rev. James Smith, who removed from Virginia to Ohio to be in a free land. He says: "On arriving on shore I could but thank my God who had preserved me through many dangers & brought me at length to see a land where liberty prevails & where human blood is not shed like water by the hand of the merciless & unfeeling tyrant. Here are no objects of despair deprived of liberty & worn down with continual toil. . . . We see no backs furrowed with whipping, nor cheeks moistened with the tears of sorrow. ' ' ^San Ildefonso, commonly called La Granja, is a village near 194 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE The rise of Napoleon had startled the world. No people felt safe from this ambitious man, who over- threw and erected governments at will. The news that he had obtained from Spain the Louisiana country produced a powerful effect on America. The ex- isting understand- ing w i t h S 2D a i n would be abrogated. Indeed, Louisiana might become a starting - point for the spread of Na- poleonic power over all America. War- like measures were proposed in the en- suing session of Congress. Petitions and memorials flowed in from the alarmed settlers in the Mississippi val- ley. President Jeffer- son wrote to Liv- ingston, the American minister at France: "The cession of Louisiana and the Floridas by Spain to Madrid, which contains a royal castle. In return for Louisiana, Napoleon agreed to create a kingdom in Etruria for the son-in-law of the King of Spain. A TYPICAL LOUISIANA COURTYARD SOUTHWESTERN BOUNDARY LINE 195 France works most sorely on the United States." After mentioning the friendship which had always existed between France and the United States, he continued: "There is on the globe one single spot, the iDOssessor of which is our natural and habitual enemy. It is New Orleans, through which the produce of three-eighths of our territory must pass to market, and from its fertility it will ere long yield more than half of our whole produce and con- tain more than half of our inhabitants. France, placing herself in that door, assumes to us the atti- tude of defiance. Spain might have retained it quietly for years." ^ Fortune granted a respite to the Americans. The blacks of Hayti, a French possession in the West Indies, had risen in 1791, massacred many of the whites, and gained control of the major part of the island. From the mountains they carried on a guerrilla warfare against the French troops sent to subdue them. They were aided by the fever, which carried off one-fourth of the invading army. The contest was prolonged over ten years, and it prevented France taking immediate possession of Louisiana after gaining it. Hayti was to have been the base of the French colonial empire in America.^ In order to quiet the western people, Jefferson sent James Monroe, who possessed "the unlimited confi- dence of the administration and of the western people," as a special ambassador to France to pur- ^ See Jefferson's Works, vol. IV. 2 This was the insurrection with which Toussaint I'Ouverture was connected. 196 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE chase the "island" of New Orleans^ and West Florida.^ France would yet own the west bank of the river, but the possession of one side could not give a 1)0 wer of exclusion. Thus by one stroke, Jefferson hoiked to settle two troublesome questions. Failing to purchase, Monroe was to try to regain the right of deposit, and if that failed, then to make any arrange- ment possible. Even the possibility of war was con- sidered. Meanwhile Napoleon had sent Laussat to take nominal possession of Louisiana, and had ordered a fresh army for Santo Domingo ; but he was con- stantly trying to hit upon an excuse for abandoning the scheme of an American colonial empire, and thereby show the French peojole the daring of his power. He renewed the war with England, and pre- tended to fear lest that country would seize Louisiana. He needed money for the war. Thus it was that Livingston, who had for weeks pending the arrival of Monroe been pleading for the sale of New Orleans and the "barren sands and sunken marshes " of West Florida, was astounded to be asked concerning Loui- siana, " What will you give for the whole? " Living- ston managed to estimate twenty million francs as a fair price. The French agent, Marbois,^ asked one ^The "Island of New Orleans'' is formed by the Iberville "river," really a bayou, which connects the Mississii^pi with Lake Ponchar- train, an arm of the Gulf. The city of New Orleans is located between the Mississippi and tlie lake. 2 It wWl be observed constantly that people differed in their ©pinions of what constituted West Florida. Undoubtedly it began at the east of the island of New Orleans, but how far east it extended was uncertain Jefferson intended it to include Mobile bay, possibly as far as the Perdido river. ^ Frangois de Barbe Marbois (Mar-bwa) had been in America as secretary of the French legation during the Revolution. He mar- ried the daughter of Governor Moore, of Pennsylvania. After his SOUTHWESTERN BOUNDARY LINE 197 hundred million, but subsequently dropped to sixty million ($11,250,000), in addition to assuming debts amounting to twenty million francs ($3,750,000), which were due American citizens. And thus, after the arrival of Monroe, the bargain was made/ It was really an insignificant sum measured by either the extent or future possibilities of the country or by the freedom from a dangerous neighbor. Yet Napoleon had in- structed his agent to accept fifty million francs if more could not be obtained. By this transfer he had strengthened the United States against his rival. Great Brit- ain ; but he violated the agreement with Spain in bartering away her gift to France. He shattered the French dream of a colonial empire in America. The French never forgot the betrayal. It proved indeed what he called his " Louisianacide. " In America all was rejoicing. "The territory acquired has more than doubled the area of the United States," said Jefferson, "and the new part is not inferior to the old in soil, climate, productions and important communications." He would make return to France he rose rapidly in office, and was appointed by- Napoleon to conduct negotiations with Livingston. ^McMaster, vol. II., page 630, estimates the total cost of the Louisiana purchase to June 30, 1880, at $27,267,621.98. OLD SPANISH BARRACKS, NEW ORLEANS 198 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE immediate use of the acquisition by removing thither all the Indians east of the river ^ and opening their lands to settlement. "When we shall be full on this side, we may lay off a range of states on the western bank from head to mouth and so, range after range, advancing comj)actly as w^e multiply." Such contemplations were pleasant, but Jefferson had before him the more practical task of ascertain- ing something about the empire wliich he had bought as boys trade jack-knives — " unsight and unseen." Even its boundaries were uncertain. Spain gave it to France "with the same extent that it was when France possessed it" (before 1763), and the United States accepted the same uncertain limits. Living- ston reasoned himself and Monroe into the belief that it included "the West Floridas" as far as the Perdido river (to include Mobile bay) on the east of the Missis- sii)pi. The American expansion had not yet begun to threaten on the western line, and that boundary was less important. The purchase certainly em- l)raced all the land between the Mississii^pi and the Rocky mountains, and j^^i'^i^ps extended to the Pacific in the Northwest. It is now estimated at 1,172,948 square miles. A still greater task awaited the president. Accord- ^ The idea of colonizing the Indians west of the river dates from Jefferson. In his proposed amendment to the Constitution author- izing the purchase of Louisiana this is one provision. But the citizens of the trans-Mississippi section protested loudly, and Con- gress did not take the necessary action until 1834, when all the land lying bej^ond Louisiana, Arkansas and Missouri was made into an Indian Territory. A number of tribes had been moved across in the meantime. The territory has been greatly decreased in size but is still reserved for the Indians. SOUTHWESTERN BOUNDARY LINE 199 ing to the Constitution, the Senate shares the treaty-making power with him, and the sanction of that body was now necessary as well as the approval of the House of Representatives in providing the required money. But there w^as a good working majority of Republicans^ in each house when Jeffer- son called Congress in early session, October 17, 1803. 1 In the rise of political parties there was unavoidable confusion of names. Hamilton and his followers adopted the name "Feder- alist," although "Unionist" would have been nearer their ideas of government. They did not want another federation. Jefferson favored adopting the w^ord "Republican" (from res piiblica, the public affair), based on the republic of Rome. Certain of his fol- lowers styled themselves "Democrats," from the French revolu- tionary clubs, but Jefferson never accepted it. Some modern writers include both names by calling the party "Democratic- Republicans." CHAPTER XVII TAKING OFFICIAL POSSESSION OF THE NEW TERRITORY In Congress, the Louisiana purchase question at once cut deep lines across the young parties, and proved that sectional interests and fears would fre- quently work havoc with party theories. Jefferson / J V_, ~^ , UA ^^~ _^^^.^ifH»^^^-«=^- IX- I I' r I r— i. NKW ORLEANS IN 1774 and his followers had always stood for limiting the actions of the central government to the powers actu- ally expressed in the Constitution, and the acquisition of territory was not among them. He therefore sug- gested an amendment to the Constitution giving 200 TAKING POSSESSION OF THE NEW TERRITORY 201 authority to the United States to add to its territory. His friends showed that such action would be a con- fession that he had ah*eady transcended his power. Jefferson yielded and sent word to his supporters that "the less said about any constitutional difficulty the better. Congress should do what is necessary in silence." The most theoretical men are sometimes practical. The opposition lay in New England, and was alarmed not so much over tlie possible breach of the Constitution as over the increased strength which the new territory would give the south and the west.^ New England fondly imagined that the presidency and other political perquisites could be kept forever, as they had been thus far, on the Atlantic slope. Her interests lay on the sea, and she had no sympathy with southern agriculture. Even her infant manu- factures would desire to prevent western migration for the sake of retaining workmen. Such considera- tions, grounded on inherited conservatism, were engendering an obstructionist feeling in that section characteristic to this day. The arguments in Congress against the ratification of the action of the president may be summed up : 1. The title to the property of Louisiana is not good. Spain might object to France ceding it. 2. The treaty-making power does not go so far as the acquisition of soil or people. ^ John Quincy Adams said: "One inevitable consequence of the annexation would be to diminish the relative weight and influence of the northern section." Timothy Pickering, of Massachusetts, declared that the union was like a commercial house which could not admit new members without the unanimous consent of the partners. 202 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE 3. The treaty promises commercial favors to New Orleans. The Constitution forbids discrimination in favor of any American port. 4. The regulation of commerce rests with Con- gress. The president has transcended his powers. 5. To promise statehood to Louisiana is unconsti- tutional. That power resides with Congress. 6. The entire action is impolitic, since it will incorporate an incongruous and inharmonious ele- ment into the United States. The subsequent ratification of the treaty by the Senate and the preparation of Congress to furnish the necessary money for tlie purchase, settled these basic questions of expansion : That the United States is not to be confined to a given territory, but has the right of extension always assumed by nations in the history of the world. That this natural expansion cannot be bound l)y political or constitutional theories. Tliat the central government has the right to acquire territory by treaty. That sectional interests and fears of the minority must yield to the will of the majority. That it is impossible to consider territorial expan- sion from an unprejudiced standpoint, since it is a law of growth, appeals to self-interest, and can be sup- ported by calling upon "patriotism." That whatever may be the later opinion concerning the advisability of adding to the nation's domain, the action seems warranted each time by the existing condition of affairs. The opposition newspapers had resorted to ridicule, TAKING POSSESSION OF THE NEW TERRITORY 203 especially since Jefferson in his report to Congress was led into some extravagant descriptions of the country of Louisiana, copied from the tales of early travelers. He told of Indians of gigantic stature ; of soil too rich for trees to grow upon, but covered with luxuriant grass; of a mountain "one hundred and eighty miles long and forty-five in width, composed of solid rock salt, without trees or even shrubs on it." A stream of pure salt water issued from its base.^ The Federalist newspapers declared that such tales surpassed those they had heard about the hoopsnakes which rolled around the western country, and the tree on the Muskingum river which produced shoes and stockings. One paper prophesied that the mountain would be found to be crowned by a salt American eagle ; another tliat it was simply Lot's wife magni- fied by the process of time. Other writers insisted that the Louisiana country also contained a spring from which poured a river of golden eagles already coined ; that there w^as also a mountain of solid refined sugar, and a lake of pure whisky. The United States Gazette gave space to this epigram : HEROSTRATUS of old, to eternize his name Sat the temple of Diana all in a flame ; But Jefferson lately of Bonaparte bought, To pickle his fame, a mountain of salt. ' The report of the President to Congress which called out this ridicule may be found in the Ex. Docs, of the Vlllth Congress, 1803. It was also printed separately as a pampldet. Jefferson had to depend for his material upon books written by Frencli travelers who did not discriminate between the authentic and the legend- ary. He also secured some information from his friends in New Orleans. Later he ascertained tliat there were salt mines within the purchase, although not salt mountains. 204 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE A stanza on Jefferson, the philosopher president, set to the music of the " Blue Bells of Scotland" ran : Oh, what will he do with his philosophic fogs? He'll discover more salt mountains and breed more horned frogs, He'll improve his whirligig chair and call woodchuck prairie dogs. Ridicule and nonsense could not stop the progress of affairs. Laussat had tarried nine months in Louisiana awaiting orders from Napoleon, and now heard, to his chagrin, that he was to take simply tem- porary possession of Louisiana, and then turn it over to the Americans. He gave the inhabitants fair words when he announced the change. Napoleon, he said, had voluntarily emancipated them, and had secured them citizenship and statehood in the United States, where they would be independent and have a great future before them. They heard with stolid indifference, for the most part. Their attitude need have created no anxiety. They were accustomed to being put at stake in the shifting game of diplomacy. This would be their sixth change of ownership. Mar- bois predicted that they would say, " This change will not last longer than the others. " They had always been colonists, unprotected from the Indians, huddled in villages, using the land at will, with limited ideas of ownership and no ambition. A few powerful men held the masses in a dependent vassalage. If the crops failed, none starved. Slavery was not entirely responsible for the dependent whites. But it was an old-world paternalism which would disappear before a new-world individualism. The government of the United States had done more real good for its people beyond the Alleghanies in fifteen years than had been TAKING POSSESSION OF THE NEW TERRITORY 205 done by France and Spain for Louisiana in three cen- turies. Yet they were Gauls being delivered to Saxons, and to prevent possible trouble General Wilkinson assembled an armed force near New Orleans, w^hen he went to assist Governor Claiborne, of the Missis- sippi territory, in formally accepting the new posses- sion. They halted just outside the city while the LEANS— CITY HALL AND CATHEDRAL* Spanish flag was loAvered from its staff in the Place d'Armes, now Jackson Square, and the Spanish troops sailed away to Havana. Twenty days the French flag flew from the staff. On December 20, 1803, Laussat met the American commissioners in the old Cabildo (City Hall), facing the square, and, * This view shows the front of the cathedral with the corner of the old Spanish Cabildo at the extreme left. Opposite is Jackson square. In it stood the staff on which the Fi-ench and American flags were exchanged. 206 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE after a simple ceremony of delivering the keys, all walked out on the balcony. The French flag was lowered to half-mast and the stars and stripes raised to the same point. While they remained there, a salute was fired. Then the United States flag slowly mounted to the top of the staff, and the French flag descended, to be caught by a sergeant-major and wrapped about his body. In that way it was carried to Laussat, escorted by fifty old French soldiers of the city who had kept voluntary guard during the period it was floated. In March, United States troops under Captain Goddard crossed the Mississippi from Cahokia to St. Louis, and the French commandant delivered the upper part of Louisiana to its new owners. The transfer of the Louisiana country was one of the few voluntary surrenders of dominion in the world's his- tory. It was the final exit of France from the American continent. It was also the beginning of territorial expansion in the history of the United States. New questions of administration, citizenship, and equity would arise and must be met. External absorption of racial elements must now be added to internal amalgama- tion. "Cheers and huzzas" from the Americans present had greeted the stars and stripes in the new land; but "tears and lamentation" came from the better class of the French. The masses were heedless. They were inexperienced in self-government. It had come by chance and not by demand. President Jefferson therefore found ' ' but one opinion as ifo the necessity of shutting up the country for some time," although the treaty promised statehood as soon as I TAKING POSSESSION OF THE NEW TERRITORY 207 possible. Such 23romises have always been made by sentiment ; they are interpreted by common sense. Back of any fine declarations about the equality of men lies the stubborn requirement of the fitness of men. Congress therefore divided Louisiana into two territories along the present south- ern boundary of Arkansas, with capitals at New Orleans and at St. Louis. To the first the name of ' ' Ter- ritory of Orleans " was given, and a government framed which did not differ in form from that first given to the North- west Territory. There was no home rule in it. The upper part OI tne convext of thk ursulixe xuxs, nkw orlkaxs p u r c h a s e w a s made into the " District of Louisiana" and annexed to the Territory of Indiana, whose capital was at dis- tant Vincennes. In thus broadly interpreting " as soon as p)Ossible" for statehood for the Louisianians, Congress was hop- 208 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE ing that the immigration of Americans would soon warrant the beginnings of self-government as in the Northwest Territory. In the meantime some friction might be expected. The Americans were Protestants and the new subjects Roman Catholic. Over half the Ursuline nuns left New Orleans for Cuba, through fear tliat their property was to be confiscated, although Jefferson wrote them an assuring letter. The wealthier and better class of French resented the intrusion of the "barbarian" Americans, with their leveling ideas so destructive to caste. They com- plained of the insolence of the voluntary patrol and the outrages of the troops who pulled down their revolutionary handbills. The Spanish officials re- mained in the city fostering these troubles until ordered to leave. In a duel, the secretary of Governor Claiborne, his brother-in-law, w^as killed. The slaves brought in with the Americans were called ^^coquins^^ (^^ascals) by the Louisiana slaves. The latter thought that the independence and equality guaranteed by the United States meant their freedom and they fre- quently threatened insurrection. Governor Claiborne was well meaning, but awk- ward and unfitted for his responsible position. General Wilkinson was flighty, intemperate, foolish, and dishonest in his avarice. Neither man could speak Spanish or French. The offices were filled by a host of relatives and petty politicians hungering for a government salary. Small wonder that the four French members of the Council appointed by Jeffer- son refused to serve.* ^ Fortunately their commission's had been sent in blank from TAKING POSSESSION OF THE NEW TERRITORY 209 On tlie other hand, the Louisianians had been so long accustomed to evading the revenue laws, that it seemed impossible to break up the practice of smug- gling. Public sentiment rather approved of it. Duties liad always been collected by a foreign government, and if any surplus had remained above expenses it would have been spent in a foreign country. The French clung also to the idea of an undivided estate descending to the eldest son. Tlie American custom of giving each child a share was a grievous innovation. The inhabitants of the Territory of Orleans or, as they persisted in calling it, Louisiana, therefore sent a protest to the ensuing Congress, Decem- ber, 1804. They complained of tlie injustice of being held without self-government, although the treaty had i^romised statehood, and although just across tlie river they saw fewer people and less civiliza- tion in the Territory of Mississippi with privileges of a local legislature.^ Since the provisional government for the Orleans Territory had been limited to one year, Congress, in 1805, in response to this petition, Washington because their given names had not been known. Claiborne at once filled in the blanks with names of Americans in New Orleans and the beginnings of government were only slightly delayed. A pamphlet in the Library of Congress entitled "A faith- ful Picture of the Political Situation at New Orleans, 1807,'' says that Wilkinson and Claiborne charged the government $6,600 per year for their table expenses, including 11,480 " Spanish segars. " The reading of their accounts in the House of Representatives was objected to because they must then be printed and would occupy too mucli space. Wilkinson is charged by another writer \%'ith failing to account for 56,116 Spanish milled dollars. ^ This petition was said to represent two thousand heads of fam- ilif.'S and was carried to Washington by Sauve, Derbigny, and De'-.r.i'ehen, three French residents of New Orleans. It was largely the composition of Edward Livingston, of New York, who as United States attorney had become indebted to the government and had gone to Louisiana to recoup his fortunes. 210 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE advanced the territory to the first grade, whicli per- mitted a local legislature. But the i^eople had to wait until 1812 for statehood and the restoration of their former name ' ' Louisiana. ' ' No less^atisfiecl were the inhabitants of the upper portion of the purchase which had been tacked on to the Territory of Indiana. In September, 1804, dele- gates from New Madrid, Cape Girardeau, Ste. Gene- vieve, St. Louis^andits Dex^endencies, and St. Charles and its Dependencies, embracing several American immigrants, assembled at St. Louis and sent a strong protest to Congress at their " entire privation of some of their dearest rights. " They complained that they were one hundred and sixty-five miles from their seat of government Vincennes (now Indiana) ; that there was not a house on the way ; that the roads were often impassable from snow and ice ; that the titles to their lands were rendered uncertain by the provisions for their government ; and that the troublesome Indians were to be transplanted across the river into their midst. " Good God! a colony of Indians to main- tain and protect us in our liberties and properties." This appeal caused Congress to change them from the District to the Territory of Louisiana with resi- dent governor, secretary, and judges. In 1812 when the name "Louisiana" was taken from them and restored to the southern part of the purchase, they were made into the Territory of Missouri and given a local legislature. Seven years later, the portion just north of the state of Louisiana was made into the Ter- ritory of Arkansas and the iDopulous section north of it became the state of Missouri in 1821. CHAPTER XVIII ROUNDING OUT THE GULF POSSESSIONS The interior of the land acquired through the Louisiana purchase was unknown. The Spanish had crossed the continent in the southern part, and Mac- kenzie ^ had reached the Pacific thrc^igh wdiat is now Manitoba and British Columbia. ^On the Pacific coast between these places of crossing, Captain Robert Gray ,^ a Boston trader, had entered the mouth of MKn.VT, STRUCK FOR THK VOYAGK OF THK '• C a broad river which he named the " Columbia," from one of his vessels. This discovery gave a kind of ^ Sir Alexander Mackenzie emigrated from England to Canada and engaged in the fur trade. In 1789 he discovered the lake which now bears his name, and in 1793 he reached the Pacific Ocean. -Captain Gray, in making this voyage in 1790, returned by way Canton and the Cape of Good Hope, and was the first man who •rried the American flag around the globe. The importance of his scovery of the Columbia river will appear in the dispute with M gland over the Oregon country as described later. 211 212 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE American claim to the middle portion of the Pacific coast. Even before the purchase of Louisiana, Presi- dent Jefferson appointed his secretary, Meriwether Lewis, to organize a western exploring party, for which Congress made an appropriation. Jefferson reasoned, because of the muddy waters of the Mis- souri, that its head must be far from the clear Missis- sippi, and might be near the source of the Columbia. In 1804 a party of forty-five men, commanded by Lewis and CaT^oiin Clark, started up the Missouri and reached a point near what is now Bismarck, South Dakota, having come 1,600 miles at the aver- age rate of nine miles per day. Here they wintered ; in the spring the}^ went forward to the Yellowstone ; and in two months they had reached the Rocky Mountains. Subsisting on horses and dogs, they crossed the mountains, and in October embarked on the Columbia in logs hollowed by burning. They reached the Pacific in November, having covered 4,134 miles. Remaining one winter on the Columbia, they started on their return and, after many hard- ships in crossing the mountains, reached St. Louis after an absence of two years and four months.^ Zebulon Pike and others continued the explorations until the topography, climate, and natural resources of the acquired territory had been fulh^ investigated. ^ Lewis was a Virginian, captain in the army, secretary to the president, and had charge of the scientific observations on the expe- dition. He committed suicide a few years after his return. William Clark was the brother of George Rogers Clark. Having retired from the army, he was living at St. Louis at the time of his appointment as military leader of the expedition. He was afterward Governor of the Territory of Missouri. The narrative of the Lewis and Clark expedition in two volumes has passed through several editions and is widelv read. ROUNDING OUT THE GULF POSSESSIONS 213 It was learned that the Rockies were a continuation of the Andes ; that the Louisiana country was not all dense woods ; that some of it was badl}^ watered, and hence had poor means of intercourse ; that there were vast tracts of sliifting sands ; and that no Welsh- Indians could be found. But the imagination of hunters was fired by stories of the grizzly, the antelope, tlie grosse come (big horn), elk, prairie-dogs, alligators, and chameleons. Naturalists found one hundred and fifty undescribed plants and twenty unknown genera. The mock orange growing on the Osage river furnished the Indians with war clubs and bows. Lead, salt, copper, iron, and coalmines had ])een opened by the invading white men and deposits of gold, silver, and "platena" were said to exist. The productiveness of the soil was shown in the luxuriant vegetation. Riches and a life of ease were supposed to await the emigrant. No one knew where the western boundary of this wonderful country of " Louisiana" ran. But l>eyond it lay Mexico— old Spanish Mexico— to which still clung the enticing legends of Montezuma days. The Spanish grasp was everywhere relaxing; the Mex- icans were ripe for a revolt ; Napoleon had seized the mother country ; ambitious men in America began to dream of independent empires to arise on the Spanish ruins beyond Louisiana. The positions of Santa Fe, Albuquerque, Chihuahua, and New Orleans were studied as strategic bases. The Gulf regions swarmed with filibustering expeditions. Even sober-minded New Englanders were infected, and it was said that \ lexander Hamilton had an appointment witli some 214 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE of them at the time of his death to consult on this sub- ject/ His mortal enemy, Aaron Burr, was also desirous of making an attempt on the Spanish southwest. The meteoric career of Napoleon seemed to have turned the heads of half the great men in the United States. Burr was fascinating, fearless, and inventive, but he lacked moral stamina and was decidedly visionary. He believed that every man had his price, and that the end always justified the means. Uniting with Blennerhassett,^ Burr purchased a tract of land in Louisiana on the Red river, originally granted by the king of Spain to Baron Bastrop. For the eight thousand acres he engaged to pay forty thousand dollars. He planned to divide it into farms of one hundred acres each and to take thither a colony from the western portion of the United States. Undoubt- edly Burr wanted to make it a base for an expedition against some part of the adjacent Spanish dominions. That he intended to separate the Avestern portion of the United States from the rest was suspected, but could not be proven. Two witnesses only could be found to testify that he had said as much, and one was Wilkinson, whose betrayal of Burr to President ^ It should be said that Hamilton's son, J. C. Hamilton, repudi- ates this statement in his "Life and Works of Alexander Ham- ilton." ^Harman Blennerhassett was a wealthy young Irishman who, with his beautiful wife, migrated to Virginia, where he purchased 180 acres of land, including an island in the Ohio River. The romantic natures of the couple found the island an ideal spot for a home. The extensive building, with its magnificent furniture, its musical instruments, and its library of several thousand vol- umes, furnished a strong contrast to the frontier dwellings of those days and attracted wide attention. Burr first landed on the island by accident during a trip down the river. ROUNDING OUT THE GULF POSSESSIONS 215 Jefferson places him beneath the contempt of those believing in honor, even among conspirators. Burr held communication as did others with rep- resentatives of foreign countries concerning the weak allegiance of the western country. America had become the plotting ground for Europeans. The air was rife with rumors. It was an easy matter to bring a man to trial for treason, but it was too late to break the continent along the Alleghanies. The increased territory strengthened rather than weakened the gov- ernment, since the westerners had nothing but grati- tude for the agency, which had not only gained for them the Mississippi, but homes and prospects be- yond it.^ In preparing to despoil the Spaniard on the western side of Louisiana, Burr was simply anticipating future events, although in the wrong quarter. Loui- siana, like a wedge, cut the Spanisli Gulf possessions into two parts, and Spain must give way, but the pressure from the American advance was to come upon the eastern or Florida portion first. The front line of adventurers and traders had followed the Spaniards as they vacated the disputed strip after the treaty of 1795, and now crossed even the thirty-first degree line, the acknowledged boundary, to settle in ^ The charge of treason in a republic is so odious that few of the leaders on the Burr expedition escaped its blight. Burr was ostra- cised socially, became a wanderer abroad, and died a pensioner on another. The charge against the others was nullified by Burr's acquittal. Swartout became a wealthy merchant of New York, but Dr. Bollman returned to Europe. Blennerhassett died in England, a pensioner on his sister, and his wife was buried by the Sisters of Charity in New York in 1842. She had a claim pending before Congress at the time for damages done by the militia when they were trying to stop the expedition of Burr. 216 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE Spanish territory about Baton Rouge and along the Amita river. Smuggling was inevitable. Runaway slaves were harbored by the Spanish and Indians. A rumor was circulated among the invading Amer- icans that Napoleon intending seizing the Floridas, and they resolved to act. In 1810 they met at Buhler's Plains, near Baton Rouge, under the sanc- tion of the Spanish governor, to consider "certain THE GRADUAL OCCUPATION OF THE FLOKIDAS = reforms in government." The outsider had again invited himself to the family table. Soon after it was claimed that the Spanish governor was treacher- ous, and another convention was called and organized the "Free and Independent Territory of West Florida," to extend from tlie Island of New Orleans to the Pearl river. In two months, under its Amer- ican governor, the revolutionary state drove out the *From the Johns Hopkins University Studies, series xiv., No. 5. ROUNDING OUT THE GULF POSSESSIONS 217 Spanish governor and applied to the United States for annexation. To avoid such open land-grabbing, President Madi- son refused to recognize the impetuous petitioners, but resolved to end the long contention with Spain over the eastern limits of Louisiana by taking posses- sion of at least a portion of tlie American claim/ He ordered Governor Claiborne to extend the authority of the Territory of Orleans eastward to the river Perdido, " to insure tranquillity and security of our adjoining territories." In his i)i'oclamation Madison insisted that this action did not preclude " a fair and friendly negotiation and adjustment " of the case with Spain, but in his message to Congress he divined the natural trend of events by referring to ' ' the people thus brought into the bosom of the American people." It was the story to be repeated so many times. American interests had adventured into foreign lands and demanded that the flag follow and protect them. This revolting part of West Florida, lying between the Island of New Orleans and the Pearl, remained attached to Louisiana, and on the modern map pro- jects into Mississippi. It is known locally as "the Louisiana parishes." In 1812 the jurisdiction of the governor of the Territory of Georgia was extended ^ The United States had tried ever since the purchase of Louisi- ana to get this troublesome question of boundaries settled with Spain. France refused to render any satisfactory opinion upon what she had understood to be the extent of Louisiana when it had been transferred to her. The United States offered to limit either the eastern or western extent, although many believed she should claim from the Perdido to the Rio Grande. Frequently the United States offered to buy the disputed portions, but Spain refused to sell, hinting that these offers showed the hollo wness of tlie Louisi- ana purchase claim to tlie entire region. 218 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE over the region between tlie Pearl and the Perdido, commonly known as "the Mobile district." The next year it was garrisoned by order of President Madison and added to the territory of Mississippi. Spain, France, and England each protested against this extension of territory, based on one side of a claim and on rumors. England has a fondness for being in at the death. She was suspected of cherish- ing a project during the ensuing War of 1812 for using East Florida (now the state of Florida) as a base of operations against the United States, and General Jackson was ordered to anticipate her.^ His occupation was but temporary, yet it made it easier for President Monroe, after the close of the war, to order him to reenter and restore order. East Florida had fallen almost into anarchy. Spain's control was powerless ; pirates thronged the coasts ; runaway slaves from the neighboring states found a refuge ; and the Indians and white refugees formed frequent marauding expeditions into the adjacent states. Jackson restored order in the true Jackson way by seizing Pensacola and St. Marks, and hanging Englishmen on general suspicion.^ Spain at length yielded to the inevitable. In 1819 the Spanish min- ' In warning the English away from Florida, Madison suggested to Congress the propriety of advising them that the United States "could not see without serious inquietude any part of a neighbor- ing territory in which they have in different respects so deep and so just a concern pass from the hands of Spain into those of any other foreign power." It is the connecting link in the growth of the "Monroe doctrine" between Louisiana and the Holy Alliance warning. " Alexander Arbuthnot, a Scotch trader, and Robert Armbrister, an English lieutenant, were hanged by Jackson for inciting the Indians in Florida against the Americans. This expedition of Jack- son is sometimes called the first Seminole war. ROUNDING OUT THE GULF POSSESSIONS 219 ister, although protesting that Louisiana had not included either of the Floridas, agreed with Secretary of State Adams to give up all titles to both of them, in consideration of limiting Louisiana to the Sabine river on the west and the payment by the United States of five million dollars, old damage claims of Americans upon Spain. The two Floridas added to the United States almost sixty thousand square miles of territory, but they conferred a much greater benefit in freeing her from a troublesome neighbor and in rounding out her possessions to natural limits. The commissioners and surveyors met, as provided in the treaty, and ran the stair-step western boundary between the United States and Spain. It ran up the Sabine to the thirty-second degree of latitude ; thence due north to the Red river and up that stream to the one-hundredth degree of 4fj*itude ; thence north to the Arkansas and to its source and by the forty-second parallel to the Pacific. It could not long limit the natural western expansion. KKSri/rS <)K FIRST KXPANSIOX CHAPTER XIX ASSIMILATION OF THE FRONTIER FRENCH ELEMENT The French had surrounded tlie English in colonial days by means of the Mississippi and the Great Lakes. The advancing Americans now found on their frontier a fringe of French population extending in a great crescent from Indiana to Louisiana. These people must be assimilated, expelled, or designedly annihilated. The American people, made up of heterogenous constituents, would not be likely to insist upon the expulsion of any foreign element. Annihi- lation would be abhorrent to them. Assimilation seemed to be the natural course. It might mean ultimate race annihilation, but it would not be indi- vidual murder. The aristocratic class of French in New Orleans seemed to see such a fate. Many left after the trans- fer to the United States and the rest maintained a strict non-intercourse. The middle class early afhli- ated with Americans, and adopted their business methods. The lower class continued to be a foreign element. But Louisiana was soon Americanized by tlie thousands drawn thither through the love of adventure and by the stories and descriptions of the picturesque city of New Orleans, Returned travelers told of the eternal summer climate where people sat under bowers of roses ; where one might converse with vivacious French 220 ASSIMILATION OF THE FRONTIER FRENCH ELEMENT 221 beauties under proper chaperon age ; where beautiful octoroons peeped from unexpected latticed windows or balconies. The people of the American states heard with amazement the descriptions of the river, higher than the city, and prevented from sweeping it away by artificial banks ; of the break or crevasse in this levee which could be closed only by e X t r a o rdinary ef- forts ; of the ab- sence of wells and springs; of the drinking water drained from the roofs ; of the cemeteries above ground ; of the hermit crabs and the horned toads. New Orleans was three-quarters of a century old, but devoid of the improvements characteristic of even humble villages toward the north. Its mixed racial population had been recruited by aimless adven- turers, bandits, slaves, trappers, squaws, soldiers, and only saved from absolute viciousness by the wives of the officers and the French and Spanish wealthy traders. The Spanish government had encouraged such impossibilities as buffalo wool manufacture and pearl fisheries, but had neglected practical means of revenue. There were taxes on government salaries, offices, legacies, liquor selling, shipping, exports, and imports, but the laws were not enforced. Hence there was often a deficit in the expenses of the local 222 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE government and no money was left for improving the city. Through the levees the water percolated, to be carried off in open ditches to neighboring swamps. The banquettes, as the sidewalks were called, were single planks laid in the mud. In wet weather parts of the city became lakes. There were no carriages, and the fine ladies walked to balls, preceded by a slave with a lantern, and followed by another carry- J ,.-'' I > 1 K • »'' \ ff^^"^ ^,ou;4;"^ ^--^;!:-:U^«--^ ^Vmc.nnfs ^ ^-^ F/£r^ (^^^- v.^ ■1/ . 1 •D.,.,A f^ H «..•.,».'>-,. / r 's ^.A J~ ^•'-C ^P^---..,,^s2::;;;./^ f'^^Jor^^^* 1 ,, Ji^.^.^n y^rk"--' C«ft o,¥ef _. n«.,.t tt Y^- s FRENCH AXn AMERICAXS IX THK ILLIXOIS COUXTRY ing the satin slippers. The danger of fever or pesti- lence was ever present to the fifty thousand people living in and around New Orleans. The upper Louisiana territory contained some ten thousand inhabitants. Of these, four thousand were French, five thousand Americans, and one thousand blacks. This upper country sent down annually a hundred thousand dollars' worth of lead and skins, although the most valuable furs were smuggled over ASSIMILATION OF THE FRONTIER FRENCH ELEMENT 223 to English Canada, where they brought higher prices. St. Louis consisted of about one hundred and sixty houses on streets parallel to the river, and built for tlie most part of logs set upright and the tops joined together. The better houses were of stone, sur- rounded by gardens and enclosed by whitewashed stone walls. Back of the houses stood the fort on a slight elevation, and still farther back, according to -u the French custom, was the common pasture land. It was said that newly arrived Parisians would journey up the river until they could see the white palisades skirting the opposite shore and then imagine themselves once more in sight of their beloved city- They were disappointed by the crude appearance of St. Louis. The only pretentious house was that built by Chouteau in 1764. The excavating had been done 224 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE by squaws using corn hoes. The stone was trans- ported on a "mud sled." The flooring had been brought from Fort Chartres when that outpost was abandoned. AVhen St. Louis first celebrated the fourth day of July, a procession of Americans and French from the settlements in the Great American Bottom ^ crossed to give the new citizens a welcome into the republic. Their side of the river had been known as the "Illinois country," and that on the west as "the Spanish country." J It was now all "American coun- try." The United States protected its new French cit- izens in their prop- e r t y and their rights, but it could not prevent their being slowly overcome in competition with the invad- ing Americans.^ Tlie French on both sides of the i 1 »» iirfiif'f rH()UTK\U \\ ^ The Great American Bottom extended back about five miles along the Mississippi river on the Illinois side for a distance of about eighty miles. It was an exceedingly fertile, alluvial soil, and within it were located the French towns fromKaskaskiatoCahokia. It contained manj^ ancient earth works or ''Indian mounds."" -The United States gave to each head of a family residing in the Illinois country in 1788, forty acres of public lands, a share of the common lands when the}^ were divided, and all lands which had been acquired except from the Indians. The titles to the latter were not considered valid. The Frenchmen had too many holy days and blessing of bells to observe, and too many cakes to distribute and calls to make to spend much time in farming. The American mis- sionaries were surprised to see them attend church Sunday morning and a public dance Sunday evening. ASSIMILATION OF THE FRONTIER FRENCH ELEMENT 225 river clung to their habit of living in villages. They were bound to it by tradition, by desire for company and pleasure, and by the church. The American settlers dwelt on their farms. The French did not educate their children as did the Americans, and by nature they were not so provident. A few French families came from the disastrous experiment at Gallipolis, Ohio,^ but the Americans poured in by OLD KASKASKTA thousands. Soon certain former French villages did not contain one family of pure French blood. New Design, Horse Prairie Town, and Goshen sprang ui) among the French villages in Illinois, although old Kaskaskia, where the land office had been opened in 1804, became the capital of the territory of Illinois 1 Described in chapter XII. *From a copy of "Wild's Valley of the Mississippi," Chicago Historical Society. Also the view of Cahokia, page 230. 226 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE in 1809. The newcomers were almost entirely from the southern states, although a few Pennsylvanians came into southern Indiana. Those settlers who came down the Ohio river disembarked at Fort Massac (com- monly called Fort Massacre), and crossed to the American Bottom or to Cape Girardeau by the gov- ernment road. At intervals along this road the dis- tances to the termini were cut into trees and the figures painted red. The migrants fi'om Kentucky and Tennessee crossed the river at Lusk's Ferry, from which a road led over the prairies to the Bottom. Prospective set- ^^"'■^ tiers in the n e w territory of In- diana turned aside at the mouth of the Wabash to as- cend that stream to the French town of St. Vincents, soon changed into Vincennes. They saw the little mis- sion chapel still standing in which the French had assembled when being addressed by George Rogers Clark. Most of the old blockhouse had disappeared. The Americans at once opened stores to compete with the little shops of the French. Goods were bought at Louisville to which market they had been brought from New Orleans. Salt made on the Kanawha sold ST. X4VIKK S eH\l'KL. VIM * From English's "Conquest of the Northwest," by courtesy of the Bowen-Merrill Company, Indianapolis, ASSIMILATION OF THE FRONTIER FRENCH ELEMENT 227 at two dollars per bushel, while the inferior kind made at the Shawneetown salines brought fifty cents less. A good supply w^as always at hand save occa- sionally when continued rains brought high waters which rendered boating impossible. At such times salt was scarce at five dollars a bushel, and other imported goods rose in price accordingly. The Wabash was considered a good highwa}', being navigable over four hundred miles, and from its head- waters forming an easy portage of nine miles to the Miami of the Lakes (now Maumee). Below Vincennes were some rapids and for this reason, as well as to avoid the tedious up-river journey, many emigrants disembarked at Evansville and walked the fifty-six miles to Vincennes. Some pioneers passed into the " new purchase," but found that the Canadian volunteers in the war of 1812 had been given a choice of locating their bounty lands in any part of its three million acres. They had just crossed the grant given to the French settlers at Vin- cennes, a grant embracing the land betAveen the Wabash and the White River, and it seemed as if the government had left but small choice to its own con- stituents. Fort Harrison protected the settlers on the great prairie, named by the French " Terre Haute," or high land. In 1817 a town was laid out near the fort and was so well advertised that 2,100 lots were sold the first day. Some called this ' ' city in the wilder- ness " Terre Haute ; others translated it to Highlands. At the junction of the streams forming the Wabash stood the fort erected by Wayne after the famous battle of the Fallen Timbers and named for him. About 228 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE it there gradually grew up a settlement. Still farther north was the old portage between the St. Joseph and Kankakee rivers and at the great " south bend" in the former river was established the settlement bear- ing that name. Newcomers took an interest in walking over the four miles be- tween the two rivers, easily fol- lowing the old portage path used by so many voy- acrers since La Salle, Hennepin, Tonty, and others first adventured upon it. Indiana was settled largely by Kentuckians who were Virginians and Carolinians once removed. Pennsylvania was represented to some extent. The New England element was barred by the great swamp extending to the west of Lake Erie, and therefore passed around by Lakes Huron and Michigan to people northern Illinois. The Americans who thus came to mingle with the French were puzzled by the names which the latter had bestowed on streams and places, and were often amused when a name had been translated, to find that it recalled some simple incident. Thus at a camp on the Mississippi, a shortage of provisions gave rise to HEAD OF ST. JOSEPH PORTAGE ASSIMILATION OF THE FRONTIER FRENCH ELEMENT 229 the name " Pain Court " (short food) ; but the place was later renamed in honor of King St. Louis. Fort Creve-Coeur (broken heart) recalled the story of La Salle, who learned at that point of the misfortunes which had overtaken his expedition. Vide Poche (empty pocket) might signify either an inlet of water or it might commemorate the adven- ture of some impecunious wayfarer. Prairie du Chien (prairie of dogs) recalled the " dog " tribe of Fox Indians. Some French names were transformed or translated by the incoming Americans. La Riviere au Vase was rendered into Muddy Eiver ; Port des Morts became Death's Door ; Roche Jaune was turned into Yellowstone. Bois Brlil^ (Burnt Woods) grew into Bob Ruby; Au Post to 0-Pose ; Bonne Passe (good crossing) to Bonpas or Bumpass ; Wabash to Way-bosh ; and Terre Haute (high land) prairie, into Tar Holt. The Americans were much amused to see the French farmers using a stick tied across the horns of their oxen instead of a yoke. The animals seemed to push instead of draw their burden. The horses were always driven tandem. The caleche or calash, with its top removed and a broad platform built upon it, was used for a hay wagon during the week. On Sunday the body was replaced, or chairs were put upon the plat- form, and the family drove out in style. The Ameri- cans did not adopt the caleche as a vehicle, but they learned to "shivaree." This was an American cor- ruption of the French word charivari, as the American practice is an abuse of the French custom. The French used it solely to show disapproval of a mismatch ; 230 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE the Americans used it as an annoyance to all newly married couples. On the bluffs below St. Louis the Americans found a French shot manufactory where the molten lead was drop]3ed from a sieve down a tower into water. The French also had floating tin- shops to supply the river region w^ith utensils. The French in turn learned to use an American churn instead of shaking cream in a bottle or beating ^m^^L^ OLD CAHOKIA it wath a spoon. They also discarded their w^ooden plow for an iron one, and substituted a band or piston mill for the tedious hand mill.^ The Americans soon preempted all the available rapids and harnessed them to mills. In order to obtain a water supply in the dry 1 A piston mill was composed of a hoi^per in which a heavy weight was used to crush the grain. The weight was raised by fastening it to one end of a balanced pole. A hand mill consisted of two mill- stones, one being turned upon the other by hand. The corn was fed into a hole in the upper stone. The band mill had a twisted rawhide band or rope running from the upper stone to a larger wheel by which a greater speed of rotation was obtained. ASSIMILATION OF THE FRONTIER FRENCH ELEMENT 231 season they constructed a " dam " across the stream. This interfered with navigation, and bloodshed and lawsuits often followed the ' ' running " of a mill dam by a heavily loaded boat. The first Americans in Illinois settled along the rich river bottoms of the Mississippi to become '' petits paysons " (small farmers), as their French neighbors called them. They were unthrifty and quarrelsome, boasting that they were born of the original breed of alligator, horse, and snapj^ing turtle. Their favorite practice of fighting was " gouging" the eye with the thumb after entwining the fingers in the hair of the opponent. They gave an ill repute to the Mississippi region, and from them the Illinois ''regulators" and kindred bands were recruited, as described later in connection with the Mormons. Some of the better class brought their slaves with them, although contrary to the Ordinance of 1787. This caused a violent contest when the territory be- came a state and the constitutional prohibition of slavery was secured only by a strong effort. Likewise in Indiana, the southern element petitioned Congress to abrogate the anti-slavery provision in the old Ordi- nance and again attempted in vain to perpetuate slavery when a constitution w^as formed. Both French and English along the Mississippi engaged in the New Orleans flat-boat trade. " When they had a surplus of bacon, flour and venison, they would load up a flat-boat and take it to New Orleans. It took four or five months to make the trip and they got very little for their load. It was a solemn sight to see a boat start off. The people would assemble on 232 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE the bank of the river and bid their friends farewell. It was very uncertain whether they would ever see them again for they were going into a dead, sickly place and they had to walk all tlie way back through an Indian country. " ^ Sometimes these flat-boat men seeking employment floated from one shipping place to another on a rude raft constructed by themselves. FROLICS OF FLAT-BOAT MEX (FROM AX OLIJ PRIXTI Hoisting an appropriate flag, they sat upon their boxes of provisions or danced to the accompaniment of the ever-present violin, while being carried along by the current. They formed a favorite subject for illustra- tion in the early western magazines. Some of these Americans purchased an equipment of guns, blankets, stroud, flints, powder, bullets, ^From the reminiscences of Capt. Bacon in Pi erson's "Jefferson at Monticello." ASSIMILATION OF THE FRONTIER FRENCH ELEMENT 233 knives, and paints and followed the French coureurs de bois (wood rangers) in their light bircli canoes over the western waters. These boats were easily carried over portages and readily patched when torn. At the trading stations such as Peoria (now Illinois) , St. Joseph (now Michigan) , Green Bay (now Wisconsin), ON THK ST. JOSEPH-KANKAKEE PORTAGE * Mackinac, and Detroit, these traders would congregate at the close of the season to indulge in high carnival. From the x)osts the skins were carried to market in " Mackinaw " boats, some forty feet long, with sharp ends and a flat bottom. * Through courtesy of Mr. George A. Baker, of the Northern Indiana Historical Society. 234 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE This French frontier contained comparatively no Spanish, although much of it had been under Spanish control. The Spaniard's idea of colonization never included a foreign residence for himself, but simply administration by himself. Even in a kind of public school in New Orleans the French language had been used. The addition of the French gave a new direction to the distribution of population in the United States. It is customary to consider the line of two or more persons to the square mile as the front line of occu- pied territory. The westward advance of this line shows the westward expansion of the people. A few general laws may be deduced from a study of its movement : The line of least resistance lies usually along a stream, and little groups of people are formed at favorable points. A number of these scattered "islands" of peo^Dle along a stream often join each other and become an arm or tongue extending sometimes fifty miles from the main body. The joining of separated portions is not always along the apparently easiest line. Thus New Orleans became united with the northern portions not along the Mississippi, but along the Tombigbee through Alabama. Unoccupied spaces in the midst of populated regions may be accounted for by mountains, as in northern New York and western North Carolina; by swamps, as in northwestern Ohio and northern Indiana ; by hostile Indians, as in Georgia. ASSIMILATION OF THE FRONTIER FRENCH ELEMENT 235 The " bulging " of the line by one portion running ahead of the rest, will follow usually the direction first indicated. Thus the most prominent advance has been constantly near the thirty-ninth parallel of north latitude. This also is near the center of population. It is as if a river were running fastest in the middle and retarded by the banks on either side. But this pre-advance was due at first to the Potomac river route ; then to the early settlement of Kentucky and the course of the Ohio river ; then to the position of St. Louis as capital of northern Louisiana ; and finally to the lower part of the Missouri river, which furnished a westAvard route along the same general line. In 1790 the frontier crossed the Appalachian moun- tain system only in one long arm, which extended up the Potomac and embraced the region about Pitts- burg. It penetrated the mountains in western Virginia and along the Shenandoalh. The entire frontier was broken by many shorter extensions, making its length some 3,200 miles from Maine to Georgia. Across the mountains was a little patch in Kentucky and a smaller one in Tennessee.^ Tlie results of the southern accessions of territory began to show in the census of 1820. The frontier was increased to 4,100 miles, and the Tennessee population had united with Louisiana along the Toinbigbee river in what is now Alabama. Long arms ran up the navigable waters north of the Ohio ^On this subject consult the first volume (Population) of the United States Census of 1880. It contains a number of interesting maps showing the advance of the frontier for each decade. 236 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE and west of the Mississippi. The little spots along the Mississippi river indicated the advance of the line to that river during the next decade. There was an unoccupied region in northwestern Ohio caused by the Great Black Swamp. That low ground had also pre- vented migration from entering northern Indiana. Northern Illinois was as yet unoccupied, largely 4^;: --4^ SCHOOLCRAFT'S CHICAGO IN 1821 because of its inaccessibility. Few roads had been con- structed northward from the Ohio across the prairies. Travelers who came around by Lake Michigan crossed the portage from the southern end of the lake to the Illinois river. Here on the small stream known as the ** Chicago," ' a fort had been built in 1804, but it was burned and its inhabitants murdered by the Indians during the War of 1812. In 1816 the fort ^The word "Shekago" is supposed to mean foul odor and to refer to the skunk cabbages growing wild along the banks of the stream. The portage is described by travelers in the spring time as the commingling of the waters^ of Lake Michigan with those of the ASSIMILATION OF THE FRONTIER FRENCH ELEMENT 237 was rebuilt and served to invite settlers under its protection. But means of travel were still inadequate and few came. Indeed, the two decades of rest from territorial expansion, extending from the acquisition of Florida to that of Texas, were marked chiefly by improved means of transportation and the consequent filling up of this middle west. It furnishes an oppor- tunity to study the growth and effects of this transi- tory frontier. Desplaines, a tributary of the Illinois, The sarrounding covmtry was submerged in these floods. The Chicago "massacre" was one of the marked events in the history of the northwest. It is treated by all local historians. CHAPTER XX THE EVOLUTION OF THE AMERICAN FRONTIER It is now possible to study not only the groAvth but the influence of the frontier in America since it has passed forever. The ^ -r^ ^^. w-y higher civilization holds from ocean to "" . ' ocean. One of the foremost students of this pic- turesque feature of the past has summed up the influence it ex- erted on the growth of the federal union : ^ Its composite nationality has evolved a new type — the American. Its agricultural resources have made us industrially independent of Europe. It has brought a more liberal construction of the powers given to the general government by the constitution. The practice of erecting new states from the land occupied by it has placed a new value on representative government. It has fostered a nationalizing tendency in political parties. It has contributed largely to the growth of democracy. It has inspired continued missionary effort. It has produced a virile intellectual development in its compelling environment. Thi ever present question in the making of ^ Professor Turner, of the University of Wisconsin, in the Report of the American Historical Association for 1898. 338 THE EVOLUTION OF THE AMERICAN FRONTIER 239 %^.^- KVOLUTION OF A WESTERN HOME* the frontier was that of transportation. If the American bison or buffalo ever roamed east of the Alleghany mountains, his patli or "trace" formed the basis of many In- dian trails, as it did west of the mountains. But the Indian could not always depend ,*,,,- *u-i,^^. upon these and was ^ .f\-- frequently obliged to locate new paths across portages and about obstructions to water routes. Tanned deerskin afforded clothing well adapted to contact with the bushes, although modern footwear would have been more suited to the making of a trail where it passed over stony ground. Following the trail of the Indian came the French coureuT de hois or the English trader seek- ing a traffic which re- fused to come to an established market. The trader was a transitory creature, and in no wise dis- turbed the primitive condition of the wilderness. But soon there came along the trail the hardy frontiersman, with his ax and his rifle. At the head of navigation on some * This illustration and the three following, taken from Turner's • ' Pioneer History, ' ' show the gradual growth of the home of a pioneer. I 240 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE Stream, perhaps where had stood an Indian wigwam, he built his log cabin, the nucleus of a later city. The woods which had known no harsher sound than the whistle of the arrow now ree'choed with the report of the rifle and the stroke of the ax. Upon the back of his one ]3ack-horse the squatter had brought his household effects, consisting of a few ar- ticles of clothing, a bed-quilt, a skillet, and a bag of corn-meal. The wife followed on foot, carrying the inevitable baby,^ while the elder sons, if the family was so fortunate, went ahead with ax and rifle. Or perhaps the family cow may have become for the nonce a beast of burden in addition to her duty as a food-producing ani- mal. If the family was especially pros- perous it owned a feather-bed. Choos- ing a spot adjacent to his cabin, the squatter cleared a little "truck patch," to supplement the main supply of food gained by hunting and fishing. ^ Among pioneer traditions it is not unusual to hear of a woman walking from the seaboard to the middle west carrying a child in her arms. THE EVOLUTION OF THE AMERICAN FRONTIER 241 Soon the trail is widened by the ax of the next comer, the small farmer, with his wagon and few farming utensils. He has some knowledge of agricul- ture, a frugal and prudent spirit, and a title to the land. Perhaps he evicts the squatter, ^ enlarges his "truck patch" to a field, puts a floor in his cabin and glass in the windows. For the accommodation of travelers, this permanent resident places a rope ferry or a floating bridge across the river and adds A PLOATIXa BRIDOE lodging rooms to his cabin. Later he is joined by a blacksmith and wagon re23airer, a store-keeper, and a professional innkeeper. A village springs up at the ^ The pioneer often voluntarily vacated his temporary home when the first wave of real settlers appeared. He complained if neighbors came within ten miles of him that he was being crowded, and ''broke for the high timber"" (micleared land) or "cleared out for the new purchase," as he termed it. Observers at the time claimed to have found men under fifty who had settled on fresh ground westwardly five and six times. * From the Massachusetts Magazine, September, 1792. 242 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE ferry. To the adjacent ''falls" in the river a crude water-wheel is harnessed or a series of rapids is dammed up to give the necessary water-power. Flour and lumber need be imported no longer. Instead, a small export trade in those commodities springs up. As civilization spreads, local self-government is organized under the guidance of the United States, and the countryside is erected into a county, with a "county seat" in the center of population. In order to reach this seat of local government, roads must be con- structed by grading to allow sufficient drainage ; bridges and culverts must span the water courses ; and the trees must be removed from each side to permit the sunshine to dry up the surface water. Guide-boards are needed at intersections of roads for the guidance of travelers in the sparsely settled coun- try. For these expenditures, public money becomes available through local taxation. Where money is scarce, equivalent labor on the highway is allowed to be substituted. With increased crojDs to market, come increased resources and an increased demand for better roads. The public highway is raised to a higher level and macadamized by covering it with gravel or some hard material. It is now a turnpike, commonly called a "pike." Where public money is insufficient to build turnpikes, local companies with private capital are authorized by law to construct them and to charge a THE EVOLUTION OF THE AMERICAN FRONTIER 243 uniform fee from all users of the road. The improve- ment thus becomes self-supporting and works a hard- ship on no one. A covered wagon with scanty springs and fre- quently no back to the seats traverses the turnpike between villages at stated intervals, carrying the United States mail and such passengers and freight as may chance to offer. As business increases, the wagon is exchanged for a stage or coach swung on leather straps and springs and the freight is relegated MODEL OF A COXESTOGA WAGON to a " Conestoga" wagon drawn by six powerful horses. Passengers are accommodated both inside and on top of the coach, and the baggage is carried in a " boot " at the back. Meanwhile the village at the head of navigation has become a small city. The pioneer farmer has removed to his farm or has been supplanted by the large farmer who comes with capital, the latest implements, and an enterprise utterly beyond the conception of his prede- cessor. Perhaps the farm lands are bought up by a syndicate or a large holder and an embryonic system 244 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE of foreign landlordism arises. Steamboats ply upon the river, bringing new residents and their belongings. At the falls the crude water-wheel has been replaced by an improved turbine, or the water-power has been superseded by steam. • By means of a "race" or artificial channel, the water is conveyed to various parts of the city for power. The rope ferry is sup- planted hj a steam ferry or a bridge. Vessels pass about the falls through a canal by a series of locks. CANAL BOATS CROSSING THE MOUNTAIN.' The United States government built the canal and now dredges the river channel, removes sunken logs and "snags," and establishes lights at suitable points for the guidance of river pilots. It also issues an official chart showing the channels and depths of all navigable waters. A canal to connect the head of the river with the head of some stream on the otlier side of the water- shed is begun by private enterprise but encouraged THE EVOLUTION OF THE AMERICAN FRONTIER 245 The cargo of the canal -boat by gifts of hand and money from the national and state governments. Reservoirs to secure water for the canal are constructed on high levels. Where tlie watershed reaches too great a height for sufficient water, a system of " inclined planes," Svith station- ary engines is provided. is loaded upon cars and these are drawn up the tracks of the planes by endless ropes p a s s i n g over large wheels of an engine. The cars are then drawn by horses along the levels between the planes and are let down on the other side of the mountain to reload the canal-boats. The boat itself is sometimes built in sections, to be carried in ^:^^^«av^^^2j ^ There were many inclined planes projected and several built. The most famous was the Portage railroad over the Alleghany mountains, connecting the eastern and western Pennsylvania canals. It was thirty-six miles long and had five planes on each side. The summit was two thousand four hundred and ninety-one feet above tide- water. The "Pictorial Sketch Book of Pennsylvania" says: "Hitched to a little old rickety locomotive, . . . we are tugged, two or three miles, over a steep ascending grade, to the foot of the first inclined plane. Here the cars are attached to an endless wire rope, winding round large iron wheels, placed hori- zontally, at each end of the plane. When all is ready, a signal is given to the engineer at the head of the plane, who immediately sets the stationary steam-engine in motion, and the rope begins its accustomed travel. It is prevented from touching or dragging the ground by numerous little wooden wheels, which revolve rapidly whenever the rope falls low enough to touch them. The ascent is soon made, and the same process is repeated at each of the other planes." 240 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE that way over the planes and reassembled on the other side. After many rumors, a steam locomotive draw- ing a train of cars steals in serpentine curves u^) the bank of tlie river to the city, whose evolution is described above, bringing promoters of vast enter- prises, extensive capital, an army of operatives, raw material, luxuries, the leisure class, the proletariat, palaces, and slums, and the cycle is complete. It is a far cry from the Indian wigwam to the com- fortable American home and fi'om the packhorse of the pioneer to the palatial railway train. But the transformation was accomplished through the expan- sion of the American people within two and a half centuries. In some places it required less than so many decades. With variations of degree and agencies employed, similar transformations have occurred in the prior history of civilization, but never before on such an extensive scale, in such a limited time, and with such excellence of comfort and economy. The Ohio valley presented in its unbroken stretch the best opportunity for these stages of evolution of the frontier, and here it inay l)e studied in its regular order. Two years before the Declaration of Inde- pendence, Pelatiah Webster had predicted of what was then a wilderness : From the Alleghany mountains to the sources of the Missouri, five hundred miles west of the Mississippi, a strip one hundred and fifty miles wide are the finest lands and the most healthful climate in the universe, and naturally secure of the advantages of the most extensive inland navigation and will in time be the seat of a grand population in America, from whence the numerous legions must issue, that will give law to the whole land. These ideas are THE EVOLUTION OF THE AMERICAN FRONTIER 247 indeed vast and will therefore, without any regard to their natural probability, be treated as chimerical ; but, if sagely weighed, must be allowed of great moment and importance. Another century will begin to realize tliem.^ Webster might have shortened his time to half a century and still have been within the limit of subse- quent realization. The rapid peopling of this region was due largely to the tide of European emigration which set in to America at the close of the Napoleonic wars. It is estimated that thirty thousand emigrants arrived in 1817, the larger portion from Ireland. At first the movement was toward Alabama, but it soon turned toward the Ohio and upper Mississippi val- leys."^ The newcomers settled generally among the native Americans, and most fortunately, since other- wise race amalgamation would have been delayed. Scattering settlements were attempted, like the Welsh in the "Welsh Hills" of Ohio, the Swiss at Vevay, Indiana, the English at Albion, Illinois, the Dutch at Holland, Michigan, and, later, the Germans and Scandinavians in various towns in Wisconsin. These segregations have always become thoroughly "Americanized" in time. The drain upon the population of Europe caused alarm, and steps were taken in some countries to ' Pelatiah Webster, of Massachusetts, wrote on economic and political questions about the time of the Revolution. Some think he first suggested the Constitutional Convention of 1787. -In one year 97,736 passengers left Buffalo for the west. During another year ninety vessels reached Detroit, one carrying seven hundred people. The first stanza of a song circulated in the east- ern states to induce migration runs : Come, all ye Yankee farmers who wish to change your lot, Who've spunk enough to travel beyond your native spot, And leave behind the village where pa and ma do stay; Come, follow me and settle in Michigania. 248 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE check it. When those who had come over sent back letters descriptive of the opportunities presented in their new homes, Cobbett^ and other writers tried to counteract their effect. Perhaps the most prominent of these attempts was made Later by Charles Dickens in dexncting the doleful experiences of " Martin Chuzzlewit " as an emigrant at Eden, on the Ohio river. The country looked " as if the waters of the deluge might have left it a week before," and as if it might be " tlie grim domains of Giant Despair." The boat "might have been old Charon's boat conveying melancholy shades to judgment." The animus of the writing is seen in the advice given by Bevan to Martin as he is returning, "Make your government more careful of its subjects when tliey roam abroad to live. Tell it what you know of emi- gration in your own case." ^ William Cobbett, an English writer and attempted reformer, left his country through fear of punishment, and dwelt an exile for two years on Long Island. CHAPTER XXI COMMUNICATION AND THE EXPANSION OF THE FEDERAL UNION. Not even the sarcasm of Dickens could stop the stream of immigration from Eurox3e whicli added itself to that from the Atlantic seaboard until it thronged every waterway and highway leading into the middle west. Thus while statesmen in Congress were debating the relative amount of power given to the central Union and that reserved to the respective states under the constitution, the people were solving the question by their demands for better communica- tion which the Union alone was prepared to satisfy. Their affection for the state was gradually under- mined. When the legislatures of Virginia and Ken- tucky in 1798 were voicing the protests of those states against the encroachment of the Union on their reserved rights,^ Moses Cleaveland was breaking through the barriers of the northern route and founding a city in territory under the exclusive con- trol of the federal Union. During the years that Calhoun was preparing to demonstrate his theory of the right of a state to nullify a trespassing act of the ^ The Federalist majority, under the scare of a possible war with France, passed the Alien and Sedition laws in 1798, by which the president could order a dangerous alien to leave, or under certain circumstances not to enter tlie United States. The Sedition laws provided punishment for printing anything derogatory of the gov- ernment or its officers. The legislatures of some states protested against the general government thus interfering with citizens of a state. 249 250 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE central government/ that agency was constructing roads, aiding canals, dredging rivers, maintaining lighthouses, and constructing harbors in the various states. While Ha^aie was eloquently pleading in the Senate for the rights of South Carolina,^ the federal govern- ment was demon- strating both its necessity and its usefulness by en- gaging in many of these public works in that very state. Three of the powers expressly given to Con- gress by the con- s t i t u t i o n and which had been stretched by ne- cessity to cover such enterprises were : 1. To es- 2. To raise and UNITED STATES POST ROUTES, 1790 tablish post-offices and post-roads, support armies. 3. To regulate commerce. The first line of posts under the constitution ^ This was the celebrated nullification theory, a midstep between protest and secession. - In the Hayne Webster debate of 1880. EXPANSION OF THE FEDERAL UNION 251 extended along the coast from Wiscassett, Maine, to Savannah, Georgia, witli spurs to Concord (New Hampshire), Albany (New York), Pittsburg (Penn- sylvania), Annapolis (Maryland), and Norfolk (Vir- ginia). Mail was carried over the northern main route three times per week in summer and twice per week in winter. To Pittsburg the mail was sent every two weeks. There were fifty-five post-offices on the main line and twenty-five on the cross lines. Postage was generally collected at the end of tlie journey and MAIL CARRIKR OF ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO was rated according to the distance. The average rate for all letters mailed was about fifteen cents. To send a letter from Georgia to New York cost thirty- six cents. There were some twenty contractors, and since each consulted his convenience as to time of starting, the mails frequently missed connection. The expenses of the postal department amounted to about twenty thousand dollars annually. Newspapers were carried free. The income of the department was also 252 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE decreased by ship captains in the coast trade carrying mail. In 1792 Congress extended the postal routes from Richmond, Virginia, across the mountains to Dan- ville, Kentucky. Two years later, routes Avere opened west of the Hudson river and from Kentucky into Tennessee. By 1800 the mails were extended to Syracuse, New York, up the Susquehanna to north- western Pennsylvania, and through the Northwest Territory along Zane's trace. In 1803 a route was established between Cincinnati and Detroit, but so late as 1815 mail reached the latter place from Cleve- land only once a week, and often the pouch did not contain a letter or paper because connections had been missed at the point of starting. In a majority of cases the mail contractor could use existing roads, but sometimes new roads had to be opened. Every road increased the hope that the national government would continue to grant such favors in the newly settled regions.^ The constitutional power of Congress to raise and support an army included the power of moving the troops from place to place and constructing roads for such purposes where none existed. At first waterways were at hand and afforded such easy routes that few roads were constructed for military purposes. The first necessity for moving troops on an extensive ^ The north and south main stem of posts shifted to an east and west direction after the beginning of trans-continental railroads. In 1845 charges for letter carriage were reduced to five and ten cents, according to distance, and between 1851 and 1855 to a set fee of three cents, regardless of distance. In 1832 mails were carried on the railroads, and in 1863 were sorted on the cars en route. EXPANSION OF THE FEDERAL UNION 253 scale occurred in the War of 1812, and it found tlie United States unprepared. The " warliawks" who brought on the war had boasted upon the floor of Congress that the American arms would invade Canada and roll it up. The humiliating experience of the western campaigns was due largely to lack of means of transportation. When Harrison made his expedition, Governor Meigs of Ohio had to call out his rangers to cut ca way through that state. The suf- fering of the soldiers from lack of supplies almost surpasses belief. The waterways were of some service when frozen, but could not be depended upon. In the summer many of the streams were dried up. A member of Congress said afterward : "Weeks, nay, I may say months, elapsed in the forwarding of ord- nance, anchors, etc., from the seaboard to the northern frontier of New York. I am not certain that the anchor of the last great ship built at Sackett's harbor has yet (1817) reached that place." Another described the condition of a road which had been partly constructed through the Black Swamp in northwestern Ohio : "Not a solitary traveler now finds his way along that avenue ; it is principally indicated by the broken remnants of baggage-wagons and gun- carriages, scattered remains of flour barrels and the mouldering skeletons of horses and oxen, remaining as they were left just visible above the surface of the mud and wet which destroyed them." The war aided internal improvement projects in still another w^ay by raising insurance on ocean commerce so high that traders were compelled to find new inland routes. In 1813, goods to the amount of thirteen 254 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE thousand dollars were sent by wagon from Boston to Providence, thence by water to Amboy, by wagon to Philadelphia and by the same conveyance to Pitts- burg. From that point they w^ent down the Ohio river and the Mississippi to New Orleans and thence by land and water to their destination — Mexico. The cost of transportation as far as New Orleans was but four and one-half per cent, while the insurance alone by the ocean was twenty-five per cent. In the winter, goods were transjDorted by sleighs. During the season it was not uncommon to count from five hun- dred to seven hundred sleighs on the road between Ithaca and Oswego, says Niles's Register. A practice had grown up gradually of allowing tlie United States soldiers stationed at the various mili- tary posts to work on public roads leading to the posts. It was a relief from the soldier's monotonous life, and added fifteen cents and an extra gill of whisky to his daily pay. The acquisition of Louisi- ana and Florida demonstrated still more the need of roads which had been experienced in the War of 1812, and Congress legalized this practice of employing soldiers. Before 1828, over two thousand miles of military roads had been made, and over five hundred miles were in process of construction.^ They were built mostly in the territories, and since Congress possessed the right of governing the territories, its power of constructing these roads was not ques- * Gallatin contemplated a great military and post road from Maine to Georgia, with radiating branches from Washington to New Orleans, St. Louis, and Detroit. Surveys were made, but con- stitutional difficulties prevented action, since it would pass through some of the states. EXPANSION OF THE FEDERAL UNION 255 tioned. But every instance added a precedent for the construction by the government of means of commu- nication. So many difficulties of the old Articles of Confeder- ation were traceable to the retention of the control of commerce by the respective states, that the federal UXITKD STATES MILITARY ROADS BKFORE 1830 gpovernment under the Constitution had little opposi- tion in taking the steps necessary to jpen all the avenues of the coast trade. Existing lighthouses and sites for new ones were accepted from the 256 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE States. Wrecks were removed from harbors, and channels cleared of sand by the general government. As the country became settled, internal commerce was developed and demanded similar aids. Some of the advocates for the rights of the states would have dis- criminated between tide-water and fresh-water com- merce, allowing the union to foster the one and leaving the other to the care of the states. Such distinction was a physical impossibility.^ It was equally impossible to separate the in- ternal commerce on waterways from the internal com- merce on connecting highways. Public highways are essential to communication, and communication to unionism. Without communication there can be no uniformity of ideals, customs, thought, or action. The Greek republics, even on a petty scale, never rose above a bundle of states, separated by moun- tains. Isolation prevented true union. This neces- sary communication may be personal, by letter, by STATES I.IGHTHOITSK AXD FO« HORN' 1 The advocates of internal improvements ridiculed this distinc- tion between salt-water and fresh-water commerce by suggesting the appointment of a chemist to determine the constitutionality of an appropriation. The money given bv Congress for rivers and harbors between 1789 and 1892 amounted to over $236,000,000. See the reports of the Chief of Engineers, United States Army. EXPANSION OF THE FEDERAL UNION 257 ne^vspaper, or l)y exchange of goods. Newlj married couples who went westward to seek a home never completely severed their relations wath the old home. Exchange of visits meant better roadways and means of travel. Now, travel in itself is an excellent means of education, as w^ell as an incentive to pride of coun- try and conse(|uent j^atriotism. The widely traveled ( man is the best patriot in the end although a more / provincial spirit may boast more loudly. Letter- writing means an exchange of ideas, and gratitude to the government which transports the mails. For the mails and the newspapers better roads must be pro- vided. The newsx)apers create a desire for novelties of fashion and comfort, and an interchange of com- modities follows. This resulting transfer of goods means better methods of transportation. Thus the Union is made by a series of interrelated and reaction- ary agencies. No view of the making of the Union is complete which omits the evolution and influence of means of transportation. The "road law^s" of the colonies were copies of those in England. In 1285 a statute had been passed in that country requiring the w^idening of all roads between market towns to prevent robberies, but it was not until 1555 that the demand for better roads brought a compulsory labor of four days in every year from every parishioner for mending the roads. Toll-gates were introduced in England soon after the Restoration of 1688. The necessity for roads between the villages of New England and the middle colonies of America was much more urgent than in the sparsely settled rural 258 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE population of the southern colonies. Before the close of the eighteenth century there were fifty turnpike companies in Connecticut alone, owning 770 miles of road. Companies had been cliartered in New York to build oyer eight thousand miles of such roads, and there was a continuous line of good turnpikes from Boston to Philadelphia. The Philadelphia and Lan- caster turnpike Avas the first road built toward the west and its charter permitted its extension to Pitts- burg. A road was planned to parallel the Susque- hanna and ultimately reach Lake Erie for the purpose of diverting to Philadelphia tlie trade which would otherwise have gone to New York. Maryland began the construction of a turnpike to Fort Cumber- land on the Potomac, and Virginia inaugurated a similar enterprise to lead eventually to Kentucky. These private undertakings were confined to the At- lantic coast plain trade. Migration demanded a route over the mountains, the cost of which would be entirely beyond the means of such companies. Under the most innocent guise and in a form to which even the sticklers for a limited interpretation of the national powers of government could not object, the United States had authorized the beginning of a highway from the Atlantic drainage basin to the Mississippi basin. It grew into the great Cumberland national road. CHAPTER XXII THE CUMBERLAND NATIONAL ROAD AND THE ERIE CANAL When Ohio was admitted to the Union, provision was made for giving that state five per cent of the proceeds of the sales of United States lands lying within it in return for the non-taxation by the state of those lands for five years. Three-fifths of this fund was to be spent by the United States in con- structing roads within the state, and the remaining COMDLETED< PqqjECTED THE CUMBERLAND ROAD, WITH APPROXIMATE DATES OF COMPLETION two-fifths in building a road over the mountains to connect the state with the seaboard. Similar pro- visions were made when Indiana, Illinois, and Mis- souri were admitted. By 1805 the two per cent amounted to some twelve thousand dollars, and commissioners were appointed who examined several routes and finally selected one extending from Fort Cumberland on the Potomac river to Wheeling (now West Virginia) on the Ohio. Allowing for deviations 259 260 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE from an air-line, the road would be about one hundred and forty-one miles long. It was the shortest portage from navigation on the Atlantic coast to the Ohio river. Indeed, at only fifty-one miles from Fort Cumberland the road crossed the Youghiogheny river which flowed eventually into the Ohio. Since the fund had not increased sufficiently to build the road, the United States treasury made an advance or loan upon expectations of future sales of land. Advances were thus made by congressional appropriations from time to time, until the demand for the completion of the road compelled Congress to cast aside the pretence of a loan, and to give money openly for this purpose. When the road had been completed to Wheeling about 1820, the states of Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri demanded its exten- sion, since their compact with the government promised a road to these states. The extension was located through Columbus, the capital of Ohio, through Indianapolis, the capital of Indiana, through Vandalia, the capital of Illinois, to Jefferson City, the capital of Missouri. Work was begun at dif- ferent places and carried on under appropriations of Congress. The history of these demands illustrates the worst feature of this species of paternalism. It arouses the cupidity of the people. A dollar obtained from the public treasury is regarded as a gift of the gods. It comes directly from the pocket of no one. Further, every neighbor of a recipient thinks himself entitled to the same benefit. A congressman, therefore, feels himself obliged to get as much as possible for his THE CUMBERLAND ROAD AND ERIE CANAL 261 constituency. On tlie other hand, notliing has con- tributed more to the comfort and welfare of the people in their expansion over the continent than the great system of public improvements inaugurated and carried on by the central government. For the Cumberland national road alone sixty distinct appro- priations were made between 1806 and 1838, giving the sum of $6,821,246. In constructing the road the trees were removed CUMBKRLAND ROAD— THE •' Y" BRIDGE AT ZAXESVILLE. OHIO from a space sixty feet in width, and in the middle a strip thirty feet wide was entirely cleared and leveled. In the middle of this thirty feet another strip twenty feet wide was covered with crushed stone to the depth of eighteen inches in the center, sloping to twelve inches at the sides. The pieces of stone were to be small enough to pass through a ring seven inches in diameter for the bottom layers and three inches for the top dressing. Before the building of the extension from Wheel- 262 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE iiig, Macadam^ began in England his experiments on improved road making, and the new portion of the road was constructed according to his ideas. In the level country w^est of the Ohio river the cost of the road was not much more than half the cost of constructing it over the mountains. The route from THK CUMBERLAND ROAD C'ROSSIN(J M'CULLUCH NKAR WKKKI-IVO Vandalia to Jefferson City was in dispute, owing to the great rivalry between St. Louis and Alton as cross- ing places.^ In 1831 Congress allowed the state of Ohio 1 John Loudon Macadam, a Scotch engineer, devised the principle of elevating the roadbed of highways instead of excavating to a level for them. This would allow drainage. He also covered the surface with some fine material wliich would pack under wear. ^ "State pride" in Illinois would not let St. Louis be benetited by becoming tlie crossing place. This contest crept into Congress and delayed appropriations, so that little work was done on the road by the United States beyond Vandalia. THE CUMBERLAND HOAD AND ERIE CANAL 2(33 to collect toll on the road for its repair and protection, and by 1856 had surrendered to the various states through which it passed the sections lying within each. The states completed the unfinished i^ortions, and oyer the eight hundred and thirty-four miles of the " National Pike " there poured a stream of colo- nists bound into the west. The time of the sta^re between Baltimore and Wheeling was reduced from eight to three days. In 1815 the Great Western Mail was started over the road, the prepayment of postage being required for this special service. Inns si:>rang up along the road at convenient distances. A member of the House of Representatives described the enormous travel on tlie road in 1824: "In a favorable season for migration, the traveler on this highway will scarcely lose sight of passengers of some description. Hundreds of families are seen migrat- ing to the west with ease and comfort. Drovers from the west with their cattle of almost every description are seen passing eastward seeking a market on this side of the mountains. ^ Indeed, this thoroughfare may be compared to a great street through some populous city — travelers on foot, on horseback, and in carriages are seen mingling on its paved surface, all seeming to enjoy the pleasure of the journey, and to have a consciousness of the great benefits derived ^ A farmer named Renick, living near Cliillicothe, Ohio, is said to have started the practice of driving fatted stock to eastern markets. The profits were sufficiently great to stand the loss in vreight. The Rev. Timotliy Flint on his journey over the Allegheny mountains met a drove of a thousand hogs and cattle "as rough and shaggy as wolves and their drivers as untamed and wild in looks as Crusoe's man, Friday." 204 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE from it. ''^ The investigator of the migration of American families will find all through tlie middle west descendants of pioneers who journeyed in covered wagons and on horseback over the Cumber- land national road. Henry Clay, who shares with Albert Gallatin the title of the father of the Cumberland road,^ contem- plated a branch leading from Ohio through Kentuck}^ to New Orleans. He succeeded in getting a measure through Congress authorizing a government subscrip- tion to one section extending from Maysville to Lexing- ton, Kentucky, but it was vetoed by President Jackson on the ground that the road was not national and the measure therefore unconstitutional. It was necessary on several occasions for a president to call the people back from their zeal for appropriations. As one result of this veto, the people of Kentucky were aroused and built the road from their own resources. Land transportation by wagon is much more expen- sive than water carriage, and can not be conducted on an extensive scale without the expenditure of a large sum for equipment.^ Artificial water communication was an early subject of investigation and agitation amomr the colonists. In 1759 the Duke of Bridw- 1 McLean, of Ohio. See Debates of Congress, 1824-5 vol. I, p. 203. 2 Clay said that the people were so grateful that he could travel free from one end of the Cumberland road to the other. Toll-gates opened to him and landlords would accept no pay. His journeys between Kentucky and W^ashington were continued ovations. See Harper s Magazine, 1879, and The Cliauiauquan, vol. XIII. ^ Engineers claimed that a horse would draw one ton on a good road in a cart weighing seven hundred pounds at a rate of two miles an hour. On a canal the same animal could draw thirty tons in a boat weighing ninety thousand pounds. The canal increased the drawing power of the horse thirty times. THE CUMBERLAND ROAD AND ERIE CANAL 2G5 water had begun in England his experiments in canals for barges, which resulted in giving that country over four thousand miles of inland naviga- tion. The attention of the Philadelphia Philosophical Society was called to this subject, and it caused a line of levels to be run between the Delaware and the Schuylkill rivers. After the Revolution, a " Society for Promoting tlie Improvement of Koads and Inland KilOM PHILADELPHIA !(» PITTSBURG Navigation" was organized in Philadelphia, with Robert Morris, the financier and promoter, as first president. In 1794 Virginia opened the Dismal Swamp canal, twenty-nine miles long, the first in America. It was to be one link in a vast chain of inland navigation, by means of which the coast com- merce could be carried on during times of war and blockade. It would require a canal from Cape Cod bay to Buzzard's bay, which is almost within the 266 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE shelter of Long Island sound ; from Newark bay to the Delaware river ; from the Delaware to Chesa- peake bay ; thence to the Dismal Swamp, and by the Dismal Swamp canal to Albemarle and Pamlico sounds. War vessels of light draft could thus defend the coast from Massachusetts to Carolina without danger of undue exposure to the enemy or wreck in doubling capes. Several of these pro- jected canals were begun, but they were confined to the Atlantic coast trade ; they failed to satisfy the demands of the people across the mountains for an outlet. The acquisition of Louisiana had opened the Mis- sissippi route for the marketing of western products, but New Orleans did not prove a seaport attractive to foreign vessels. Toward the east it was farther from Europe than the Atlantic seaports and past the dangerous Florida Keys. Toward the west nothing could be hoped for until an Isthmian canal should be constructed. The hopes of the trans-Alleghanians turned again toward the Atlantic. The Great Lakes formed a system of inland seas, tlie largest in the world, l)ut their outlet passed through foreign ter- ritory, involving the annoyance of customs duties. An artificial water communication with the Atlantic coast was im^Derative. Where and by whom should it be built? The strict constructionists now in full power would likely prevent national aid and turn the project over to some enterprising state. In his celebrated report of 1808, Albert Gallatin, sec- retary of the treasury, had pointed out the three great watersheds east of the Mississippi, and the necessity THE CUMBERLAND ROAD AND ERIE CANAL 267 of providing communication between them/ The Alleghany mountains made a canal impossible, a fact of which tlie Philadelphians were keenly aware. On the other hand, New York realized that the Hudson river burst through the northern remnant of the mountains at the Highlands and that Troy, the head of navigation, was west of the barrier. West of Troy lay a fertile region inviting settlement, but with no means of communication. Beyond lay the Great Lakes. The project of the Erie canal from Albany to Buffalo was frequently considered by Congress, but nothing was done. At last the state of New York assumed the expense and, after years of agitation, the scheme was realized in 1825 when the boomino; of cannon stationed at intervals along the line proclaimed that the lakes and the sea were united. A few weeks later a cask filled with water at the western terminus and brought to New Yoi'k was emptied with great ceremony into the harbor. It was the "wedding of the waters."^ The effect of the canal on New York Avas soon felt. In 1790 New York city had just passed Philadelphia in population ; in 1830 she was double, in 1840 three times, and in 1850 four times the size of her rival. By 1833 flour was being shipjDed from the Venice mills on Sandusky bay, an arm of Lake Erie, to New York city. The west was beginning to feed the east. ^ This report may be found in the American State Papers, vol. XX., page 724. 2 For an account of the triumphal journey of Governor Clinton in a barge from Erie to New York, see Niles's Register, Vol. XXV. Other canals were added until New York had 906 miles of arti- ficial waterways. 268 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE The Erie canal also exerted a powerful influence throughout the lake regions. Between 1820 and 1840 the states north of the Ohio and east of the Missis- sippi increased as a whole over 360 per cent in popu- lation. They began to project canals between their waterways. In 1828, Governor Clinton, of New York, known as the father of the Erie canal, was the guest of the state of Ohio, and turned tlie first earth in the canal system which that state inaugurated between Lake Erie and the Ohio river. ^ Rivalry between different cities caused two canal lines to be built eventually, but the investment was regarded as profitable by the taxpayers. Indiana had fewer inhabitants but began the Wabash and Erie canal to follow the Maumee and Wabash rivers, thus forming a new route from Lake Erie to the Ohio river transversely through the state. Soon after slie planned the Cross Cut canal at Terre Haute, the Whitewater, the Central, and the Erie and Michigan. The Wabash opened the district hitherto blocked by the Great Black Swamp and brought many immigrants from the northern states to give to Indiana the sectional population which already marked Ohio and Illinois. Illinois, with a small i^opulation but a sublime hope in the future, projected the Illinois and Michigan canal, forming an outlet from the lower end of that lake to the Illinois river, and thence to ^ Governor Morrow, of Ohio, turned the second spadeful of eartli, and Thomas Ewing, the orator of the day, the third. The Chilli- cothe Guards were present. Food had been brought twenty-one miles from Lancaster, and dinner was spread in a grove on tables improvised from newly -sawed boards. Afterward Governor Clinton made a tour of the state as a public guest. THE CUMBERLAND ROAD AND ERIE CANAL 269 the Mississippi at the future city of Alton. Michigan planned a canal from Mt. Clemens to the mouth of the Kalamazoo river, but abandoned the project. Wisconsin inaugurated the Wisconsin and Fox river improvement.^ Congress gave public lands to aid many of these enterprises,^ although the low prices at which the lands were sold often robbed the undertaking of its just rewards. An interesting but transitory phase of transporta- tion in the middle west may be found in the "plank roads" first constructed when stone and gravel were wanting. Upon girders placed lengthwise, boards or planks three inches thick were laid crosswise, and over them a thin dressing of earth was placed. At first it seemed an excellent and cheap substitute for the more common road-making material and many companies were organized to construct toll plank roads. But the roads proved not to be durable and almost impossible to repair and the system was soon abandoned. ^ Six thousand miles of canals were constructed in the t'^nited States, of which more than one-third has been abandoned. ^ Over four million acres were so granted, besides the cash of the "surplus distribution"' of 1837. CHAPTER XXIII STEAMBOA^J'S AND RAILROADS IN THE MIDDLE WEST The experiments of Fitch, Riimsey, and Fulton with the steamboat have been described in preceding pages. In the first twenty years of the Constitution a score of patents were issued for is expected that sWMi-u^itiii!> wiu Aumi navigate the Connecticut, as far up as Windsor. Several years ago, a steam- boat ascended the river to the distance of two hundred miles from its mouth, and was warmly greeted by the inhabitants along the Jjanks. such purposes as "pro- pelling boats by cat- tle," or "by horses" ; " for a new method of propelling a l)oat up stream " ; " for an im- proved steamboat," etc. A f e w s t e amb o at s were employed as fer- ries, but no extended use of them was mftde until Fulton and Liv- ingston inaugurated their packet line on the Hudson. They*' were granted a mo- nopoly by the state of New York, and Robert L. Stevens, who had constructed a steamer on the Hudson, was compelled to take it around to Philadelphia. The coast trade thus ])egun was soon in vigorous prosecution. Upon every navi- gable Atlantic stream a line of boats was inaugiu'ated. 270 a Steam-boat. 11. What took place in 1764? 12. Whoa did V. become one of the United States t What of Vermont one himdred years ago ? What of it now ? Describe the picture. (FROM PETER PAKI.EV'S KIKST BOOK OF HISTORY) STEAMBOATS AND RAILROADS IN THE MIDDLE WEST 271 Although more sparsely populated, the western country with its great distances felt more need of rapid communication by water than did the east. The building of flatboats and barges at Pittsburg and other points on the Ohio and its tributaries had grown into an extensive ship-building industry. In 1800, the St. Clair, named in honor of the governor of the Northwest Territory, was launched at Marietta, Ohio. Full rigged for ocean, as well as river, voyage, she was loaded with pork and flour and, under command of Commodore Whipple, sailed down the Ohio, over the Falls, and to New Orleans. She then went on to Havana and returned to Philadelphia with a cargo of sugar. Commodore Whipple had gained his title during the Revolutionary war in which it was claimed he had fired the first naval gun. His feat late in life of bringing a sailing vessel from the Ohio around to Philadelphia attracted general attention and he was given a continued ovation as he returned overland tc Marietta. ♦The following extracts are taken from a poem written on this occasion : The Triton crieth, " Who Cometh now from shore ? *" Neptune replieth, " 'Tis the old commodore." Long has it been since I saw him before. In the 3^ear seventy-five from Columbia he came, The pride of the Briton on ocean to tame. But now he comes from the western woods, Descending slow with gentle floods, The pioneer of a mighty train, Which commerce brings to my domain. 272 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE Within five years after Fulton's successful venture with the Clermont, he sent the art of steamship build- ing across the mountains, and launched the Orleans at Pittsburg, the pioneer of the extensive industry in steamboat building, which soon sprang up all through the western country. At first the steam was used simply to assist the current in vessels pass- ing down stream ; but in 1815, a steamboat dem- onstrated the pos- sibility of going against the cur- rent by travers- ing the distance between New Or- leans and Pitts- burg in thirty- five days. The Mis- *" sissippi river had not been improved and was so obstructed by "snags and sawyers"^ that twenty-five days had been consumed in reaching Louisville. Yielding to the loud clamor from the west, the United States government began the improvement of the western waters, thus [CAN STEAMBOAT ^ Old trees floating in the rivers often sank to the bottom and became partly embedded, leaving a projecting limb or root to f(-rm a "snag." If the limb or trunk was only parti}" fixed, it rose ; i(i fell in the current and seemed to saw the water. It was calle ; i\, "sawyer." The rivers had accumulated many of these dangers to navigation in the process of the ages, and government "sn.u,- boats" were employed in removing them. Those who opposed sim !» work on constitutional grounds were said to be in favor of "snauc-', sawyers, and the constitution forever!" STEAMBOATS . . vII>ROADS IN THE MIDDLE WEST 273 accepting the task of fostering internal as well as ocean commerce. Adventurous captains soon took their light draught vessels up the Mississippi above St. Louis and up the Missouri as far as the Yellowstone region. Steam navigation was begun on the Great Lakes when the Wcdk-in-the- Water started from Black Rock, near Cleveland, Ohio, for Detroit. It eventuall}^ reached Mackinac.^ But it was not until 1832 that a steam- boat came to Chicago. The traffic on the western waters soon assumed enormous proportions. A count was kept at Cairo, Illinois, in 1840 which showed 4,566 vessels having passed that point during the year. Competition and poorly built vessels, together with the imperfectly cleared streams, made river travel perilous. During ^ This vessel was rather oval in shape, with side wheels. It was named after an old Indian chief. Those Indians who saw it on its journey claimed the fulfillment of a prophecy that a huge canoe drawn by sturgeons would come up the lakes. 274 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE ■%^ the same year there were 109 disasters chronicled, causing a loss of 59 vessels and 205 lives. Aside from the danger, water transportation was interrupted during the winter season and was unreliable in the midsummer droughts. The demand for better facili- ties of transportation on land brought eventually the perfected railway. The stages of the evolution of the railroad train from the wheeled wagon are so many and so slight in difference that the dates and places of " first " things remain in much ^i ^ ^ . ^ n dispute. So early as 1680, strips of wood or rock ledges were used for cars in the coal mines of England, and by 1738 the wood was surfaced with strips of iron. Such roads were used in the United States before 182^ for carrying earth in the con- struction of canals and for transporting blocks of stone. Two years later the force of gravity was used in propelling cars in the Mauch Chunk collieries, the; cars being drawn up the incline by mules. Several American applications of steam to carriages were made by inventors, one of the most interesting being that of Oliver Evans, a fertile inventor, who built his ' ' Oracta Amphibolis "Mo riyi upon the ' Two Greek words meaning "created to run on both." They are sometimes written "Orakter Amphibolos" or "Erukter Amphibolis.'' ^W^- ^^A STEAMBOATS AND RAILROADS IN THE MIDDLE WEST 275 water or upon the land. His craft created much excitement when run through the streets of Phila- delphia. Every incident connected with the experi- ments of Stephenson in England was printed in the United States, and public expectation was aroused to a high pitch when the ' ' Stourbridge Lion ' ' ^ arrived in 1829 to draw cars from the Honesdale, Penn- sylvania, coal mines to the canal. The same year, probably the first railroad built in America expressly for a locomotive was constructed MODEL OF MOHAWK AND HUDSON TRAIN from Charleston to Columbia, South Carolina. Cars were drawn upon it at first by horses, then driven by sail, and eventually drawn by a locomotive called the Ik "Best Friend." Extended to Hawley, it became the longest railroad at the time in the United States, and first carried the mails. Maryland probably con- structed the first railroad by public charter — the Bal- timore and Ohio. Charles Carroll, of Revolutionary fame, turn^ the first earth, and it was opened as far ^ There was the head of a lion painted on the front of the loco- motive, and it had been built at Stourbridge, England. 276 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE as the Relay House in 1830/ Peter Cooper, proprie- tor of the Canton iron works at Baltimore, built a locomotive from his own design, the first constructed in America, and so saved the railroad when it was AKRIVAL OF FIRST TRAIN AT WEST CHESTER, PENNSYLVANIA * about to be abandoned as unprofitable. His locomo- tive raced with a horse drawing a car on the other * From a daguerreotype. ^ Charles Carroll, of Maryland, was the last survivor of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, dying in 1832 at the age of ninety-five. The Relay station received its name from the practice of keeping a fresh relay of horses for the cars at that place. "Peter Parley's" First Book of History, printed about 1880, says: "But the most curious thing at Baltimore is the railroad. I must tell you that there is a great trade between Baltimore and the states west of the Alleghany mountains. . . . Now in order to carry on all this business more easily, the people are building what they call a railroad. This consists of iron bars laid along the ground, and made fast so that carriages with small wheels may run along them with facility. In this way, each horse will be able to draw as much as ten horses on a common road. A part of this railroad is already done, and if you choose to take a ride upon it, you may do so. You will mount a carriage something like a stage and then you will be drawn along by two horses at the rate of twelve miles an hour." STEAMBOATS AND RAILROADS IN THE MIDDLE WEST 277 track, but lost by a belt slipping from a wlieel. This locomotive showed the possibility of going around curves in the road and gave an impetus to railroad building. In 1832 the road was extended westward W- ^jr iSiiJi. U.\>t\b C^S.i «K'i) lArtAi i'4\lZM'XZ, PbHadelpiiia to TUROVaU I9i 3i DAYS! .§.VtfUfn PITTKBI R<.ill 1« LOI IKVIIXE. eilK«r« for < !f! \ ,^rM!ll' >t. Iv OFFICE, N R. CORiVEK OP FOl'KTIi AXD CIItaSJIlT ST. JL B. Ci/pLWiAVa, J0mt. to the " Point of Rocks," and excursionists made the round trip of one hundred and forty miles in seven- teen hours. In 1835 there were two hundred miles of railroad in operation in Pennsylvania, one hundred and thirty-seven in South Carolina, one hundred and 278 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE thirty in Virginia, and one hundred each in Massa- chusetts, New York, and New Jersey.^ These first roads were constructed solely as feeders to the canals and as connections between natural waterways. No one supposed that the railroad could ever suj^plant the canal, and a contest went on between the two for ten years before the railroad demonstrated its superiority in cheapness, speed, and ease of construction. Sometimes there was oj)en hostility and almost bloodshed between these two forms of public improvement as in the case of the Baltimore and Potomac canal and the Baltimore and Ohio railroad. Each claimed the right of way over the same ground. The first railroads were so poorly constructed, as seen from the following description, that they had to be rebuilt : First a mud-sill was laid down lengthwise of the road ; .strong cross ties were then spiked on this mud-sill; into these "gains" were cut, and these received the wooden rails sawed to fit them. These rails were about five inches wide at the top, broadening at the bottom where they entered the gains, and were about seven inches high. On these the "ribbon" was spiked, being a strip of hard wood about two and one-half inches wide by one inch thick, and on this the strap iron was laid. Spikes were driven through the strap-rail and the ribbon into the large wooden rail beneath; the heads of the spikes being sunken into "eyes" in the strap-rails, leaving a smooth surface for the wheels. ^ Number of miles of railways in operation in the United States in different years : 1840 2,818 1843 4,026 1847 5,598 1850 10,982 1860 30,635 1898 186,396 1830 32 1831 1832 95 229 1833 1834 380 633 1835 1,098 1838 1.913 STEAMBOATS AND RAILROADS IN THE MIDDLE WEST 279 With such construction, accidents were numerous. It became necessary in many instances to sheath the bottom of passenger coaches to prevent the strap-iron piercing the cars by becoming loosened and curling oyer the wheels. The cars were modeled after the stagecoaches, and passengers were "booked" by name when pur- chasing tickets. There were no side tracks and on a single track road the passen- gers on the local horse car must alight and lift their coach from the track while the locomotive express passed them. On the double track the horse drawing the car in one di- rection sometimes in its alarm jumped in front of the locomotive going in the opposite direction and was killed. Passengers on the tops of the coaches had their clothing ruined by the sparks from the locomotive. Sometimes they raised um- brellas on which water was poured frequently. Many stories are told of the wonder and even alarm of the people upon the advent of the locomotive. The }i{<'ii''itr<- 1 fuilij rei/u( \>vtl «.' " , 1 N 1 ! 1. 1 MN' ! - • , ' ', 11 git'f)i III tfi'.s Ci/t/, rot/nnniri/t:; 1 ,1 t 'c- IO//1 j£^tt''<' nej-/, in celfbrutionnj the vumpletton ■pS** Srvrt ('APiitt sps HK^rroN R^ii. U )M> m < tlVKl.L". \1AM,\, '- \I,K!il.l) JONh-. \\n.i.iv« wHiri:. | = I m-ki'hi,.\ miiu-ui, K, H. vvi.M.Art:. 1 -i . .\\r. (, i,\m> (.EOHUK i.u'M.K '*^^ c. t'. i;\rM,i.. I'LKKIN H HI >\\V.V - , (, \>.r,)N M V ;i Iii .;, s w wiiiiiM.. 1 - ! (;Kt)u(,i; w imi h J ■. ( \\\y\:\ I.I - \r Lii.!;i i 1.' (,ii. -^ h 7j m 280 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE Great celebrations were held in honor of the comple- tion of a railroad, and sometimes the state officials were carried upon the first train. A local poet describes in the Western Magazine such an occasion : The mothers ran out with their children about — From every log cabin they hail ; Tlie wood-chopper he stood delighted to see The law-makers ride on a rail. The horses and cattle, as onward we rattle, Were never so frightened before. Other rhymsters were filled with the impulse of the new era/ although the teamsters felt that the railroad would be a formidable competitor. One stanza current among them ran : Oh, it's once I made money by driving my team, But now all is hauled on the railroad by steam, May the devil catch the man that invented the plan, For it's ruined us poor wagoners, and every other man. The remarkable growth of internal commerce, the rapid development of intra-continental communica- tion, and the marvelous growth of western population brought on the speculating mania of 1836-38. Cities were staked out in the wilderness, town lots without any definite location brought extravagant prices, and companies were exploited for the most chimerical purposes. The Great Western railroad was projected to run from New York to Lake Erie and thence west- ward to the Mississippi at the mouth of the Rock river. It was to be built on piling, and it was said ^One "poem" begins: The world is too busy for dreaming, And liatli grown too wise for war ; So to-day, for the glory of Science, Let us sing of the Railway Car. STEAMBOATS AND RAILROADS IN THE MIDDLE WEST 281 that it could be constructed at the rate of twenty rods a day. The total length of one thousand and fifty miles would cost fifteen million dollars. Lands were received for subscriptions at extravagant prices. A farm, which had been appraised at ten dollars an acre, brought one hundred dollars an acre when con- l-'J CiMl'^", V -|- \i ^ P-AILKOAD. ■ , ^ .. . !'.. k, A. M. < 2 ■i >1. P.M. f Ijoffmir-Iivo Kngmf '>vil! ](^a\i- Xhf \}i , k, P. .M. verted into stock. Seven lots in "Ohio City" brought one thousand dollars each. Cities were staked out along the proposed route. Some feared that in time all the farming land would be occupied by cities and a famine ensue. Other "paper roads" crossed the country in all 282 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE directions, and "terminal cities" were laid out on magnificent proportions. Many lots were purchased in tlie cit}^ of Manhatta before it was discovered that it lay in a swamp two miles below Toledo, Ohio. Men took great chances. A lot was bought in "Fairport Harbor" for two thousand five hundred dollars that has long since returned to farm land ; another swampy tract of one hundred and two acres near the lower end of Lake Michigan sold for $127. 86i, and afterwards became a part of the city of Chicago. Many town sites containing great bargains in lots were sent from Chicago to the eastern cities and dis- posed of at extravagant j)rices.^ The legislature of Illinois reflected the iDopular demand when it j)lanned the construction of thirteen hundred miles of state railroad to cost over a billion dollars, the improvement of five rivers at a cost of nearly a half million, and the distribution of two hundred thousand dollars to the few counties contain- ing neither a railroad nor a river imj)rovement. Of these extravagant sums, over eight million dollars were actually appropriated, until the state debt amounted to $29.78 for every inhabitant. When the governor-elect in 1842 entered upon his duties, there was not enough money in the state treasury to pay his postage.^ ^ In a St. Louis paper an advertisement of the burlesque town of "Ne Plus Ultra" appeared. The streets were to be one mile in width and tlie squares sections of six hundred and forty acres each. In the heart of the city a road from Pekin to Jerusalem crossed another from the south pole to Symmes' hole at the north pole. 2 This statement is made by ex-Governor Ford in his "History of Illinois," page 278. Brown's "Historj^of Illinois" (1844) contains a map showing the network of proposed canals and railroads for Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. STEAMBOATS AND RAILROADS IN THE MIDDLE WEST 283 Ohio also passed a "plunder law" in 1837, by which the state loaned her credit in six per cent stock to the amount of one-third the stock in any railroad enterprise, provided the other two-thirds w^ere paid by the company. In ten years the state owned half a million in stock upon which not a cent had been received. Some of it was subsequently sold for eight cents on the dol- lar. The state ^ Wisconsin mi ijiiii) gave to railroads %sav.nnah ltf"''# almost two mil- D \ ^ /]^^^V>— .. .1 lions, and to ca- r^ ^'^4^\^^^^^^^ nals six hundred J pe„.,a(#L ^^A ' ..M^^^S^^' ° thousand dollars. / ^^'"'''Vr^ ^Sioomington | ^^^*^ v^^^ Michigan spent fcZ>f!.^--'^-5;;''p'" 11 jjiudianapoiisi... O -f \ /Springfield^ • "'M/ J^' / |A^ O some eight mil- \^l^:%i;7Z7'§^^'''^<---3~. lions on canals, ^^^d^^^^^^^^^-^^^^^^^-^ rivers, and rail- /s>^^ aPi.u fhc nri>„i. :.t .\3: \\ < ' ANTMv, for FKE.%'CIITOW!^, ! Upon tlic nrr'nM L.l'tht Sl,>ui.i-I.uat tn»i Pl.iliuklpl.la. nt ahout Balf Past meht o'clock, li^^ Lcaiesi FrencIitoi«ia a< nhoiii llHlf=PaM Ten oVIoek. Di'lwrU from \V« ( , ,1 („, ( i.ai. Ijtonn i i, Mruii 2 ( \i,i.i v.in.i.c ,» ii,;"ii I'" una! >./tJi VJTl.U\()ti\ f;(» VI /,.„« i'l,l„l.(!.li., ,1 .>r...,( •« > ..1..1. .•■■' ' . ^ ^ — - "-- •'""'^ I'-'^ rare o^tf ilK lt«ad ....... .•jo • « nf*. Do., far f\rut*oioi> »-.<% liai' i'oa<{ «e:i(i i»o., far f\rm^lo«» »-,<■» iiaJ»oa«J «t»ti {«uJc • - ''^*JJ"'l" »^ successively a part of the Indiana, the Illinois, and the Michigan territories, the region seemed to give little encouragement to the suggestion frequently made that the Indians be employed 'in lead mining. By 1820 civilization had advanced so far into 288 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE Illinois and up the Mississippi that mineral pros- pectors found their way into the lead country. News of the rich fields spread to the states and produced a "rush." It was an embryonic California. One of the most famous points was named "Galena." ^ Lead was worth thirty dollars a ton and fortunes of those days were easily made. The winters proved severe and many miners in the southern i^art of the field went home in the autumn and returned in the spring, like the "sucker" in the river. Some would attribute the nickname of tlie state of Illinois to this fact as well as trace the nickname of the northern or Wisconsin mines to the "badgers " which burrowed in the ground and remained all winter. This undue development of population placed the early j^olitical power of Wisconsin in the southwestern corner of the state. It also created an isolated group of people in northern Illinois for whom a more direct route to the east must be found than down the Missis- sippi and up the Ohio. Transportation of the product of the mines demanded a similar outlet. The main stem of the Illinois State railway was j)lanned for this purpose but failed of realization. For many years a railroad connection with Chicago was agitated and at last the Galena and Chicago Union was begun on piling driven in the low ground between the Chicago and the Desplaines rivers. When four miles had been completed, a little locomotive called the "Pioneer" was unloaded from a boat at Chicago on a Sunday forenoon in 1848 and began its work of hauling material for further construction over the strap iron ^ This is the technical name for the common lead ore. STEAMBOATS AND RAILROADS IN THE MIDDLE WEST 289 rails/ In one month the line had reached the Des- plaines river, a distance of ten miles. Two freight cars were loaded with a hundred Chicagoans for the first trip and, on returning, brought in a carload of wheat. In a short time the road was earning fifteen THE '• PIONEER' iST LOCOMOTIVE IN CHICAGO dollars a day hauling grain into the city. In 1850 the road had reached Elgin and owned four locomo- tives, twenty-nine freight and two passenger cars. A trans-continental line would be next in order. ^ This locomotive was preserved by the Chicago and Northwestern Raih'oad, of which the old Galena and Chicago Union became a part. The company has placed the valuable relic in the Field Columbian Museum, Chicago, deiDartment of transportation. CHAPTER XXIV THE MIDDLE PERIOD OF INTELLECTUAL GROWTH In 1825 had come the first opportunity of apprecia- ting the lack of proper means of travel in the inland regions, and, as it eventually i)roved, one of the first incitements to national iDride. General Lafayette, upon invitation of President Monroe acting under orders of Congress, spent one year and four months as the nation's guest. At first his time was given to the eastern cities, but yielding to the demands of remoter places, he made a tour from Washington through Virginia to Georgia, thence to New Orleans and up the Mississippi and Ohio to Pittsburg. From here he went to Lake Erie, and, passing down the Erie canal, reached Boston in time to assist in the laying of the corner-stone for Bunker Hill monument. One hundred days were consumed on the journey of five thousand miles through seventeen states. About half the travel was performed by land and half by water. He was received in Baltimore in the tent formerly used by Washington, was entertained with a "ball play" by the Cherokees when passing through their country in Georgia, and attended the Amer- ican and French theaters in New Orleans. At every city and village he was received by lines of school children carrying banners and flowers. The only unfortunate incident of the tour occurred when the steamboat Mechanic struck a snag between Memphis 390 THE MIDDLE PERIOD OF INTELLECTUAL GROWTH 291 and Louisville and immediately sank. The unfortu- nate travelers escaped to the shore, the General losing his carriage and his baggage, including many valu- able papers. The captain lamented the loss of his vessel, but much more the unhappy plight into which he had put the nation's guest. He feared that he would never be forgiven. He did not realize what PLATTER COMMEMORATING VISIT OF LAFAYETTE strength the accident would develop as an argument in favor of improving western navigation by appro- priations from Congress. Lafayette's visit gave expression to the silently growing pride of country. It showed how vast was the inhabited domain and yet how easily reached. Orators made contrast of the thirteen states when 292 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE Lafayette had been last in America with the twenty- four at the present time ; of the three millions popu- lation then and the ten millions now. Medals commemorative of the event were struck, platters showing his reception in New York city Avere made, and Congress voted him two hundred thousand dol- lars and a township of land. By contrast the Duke of Saxe-Weimar visited every state in the union the following year. The press welcomed him as " any ordinary mortal, even a cob- bler," and when he departed pronounced him a "modest but prudent man who did not try to force his attention on republicans." The country was as yet both provincial and sensitive. This sensitiveness was especially manifest toward the criticisms of England on the lack of literary and artistic taste in America. When the Edinburgh Revieiv or the Quarterly Revieiu spoke of ' ' the vernacu- lar of the former colonies," or of a book " written in the American tongue," when they lamented "the scarcity of all but mercantile and agricultural talents in the new world," the rage of the American press knew no bounds. Justice Marshall's " Life of Wash- ington " had produced a thrill of pride in America as the beginning of that form of composition, but the English reviews declared that it "was deficient in almost everything that constitutes historical accur- acy." John Quincy Adams had written his "Letters from Silesia," in a style which the reviewers pro- nounced "in general, very tolerable English, which, for American composition, is no moderate praise." These English strictures were felt to have reached THE MIDDLE PERIOD OF INTELLECTUAL GROWTH 293 positive insult in an article which asked, "But why slioulcl the Americans write books, when a six weeks' passage brings them in their own tongue, our sense, science and genius in bales and hogsheads. Prairies, steamboats, grist-mills, are their natural objects for centuries to come." Like most young and sensitive persons, the Amer- icans eagerly sought from every stranger his opinion of them and then were wounded by the reply. They objected to the criticisms of Thomas Ashe^ in his "Travels in America in 1806," and accused him of the theft of Dr. Goforth's bones of the mammoth which he had exhumed in Kentucky. They resented Fearon's^ descriptions of the conversations of men and women in America "which turned entirely on the ca^Dture of the Guerriere and the battle of New Orleans, the price of flour and cattle, and the bad con- duct and inferior nature of ' niggers.' " But still more galling were tlie criticisms of Mrs. Trollope, who, separating from her husband, came to Cincinnati, Ohio, to engage in the millinery trade. Failing in that, she returned to England and in 1832 published her "Domestic Manners of the Americans," following it by several novels depicting the vulgar side of American life. She found plenty of material in the tobacco chewing and the spitting of the men ; in the pinched waists, the low shoes in winter, and ^ See his "Travels in America in 1806, '" and "Memoirs of Mammoth and other Bones found in the Vicinity of the Ohio." In his later years he filled a clerkship in Dublin. 2 Henry Bradshaw Fearon was an English physician sent to America by a prospective colony to choose a healthy spot if such could be found. See his "Narrative of a Journey of 5,000 Miles through the Eastern and Western States of America," (1818). ^94 THE EXPANSION OP THE AMERICAN PEOPLE the mock modesty of the women. She especially saw through the pretense of finery and the attempted rivalry of the old world in the wilderness of the new. Harriet Martineau in 1837 had added to these gall- ing descriptions her "Society in America" and her "Retrospect of Western Travel," each in three volumes. A few years later, Capt. Marryat gained an unenviable immortality in America with his "Diary." People recalled the earlier sneers of this naval captain in England and his duel with the poet Willis, who chanced to be there and defended his coun- trymen. If the Americans had not been so sensitive and had dared assert their individuality, they would have acknowledged that they had as yet no national litera- ture in the young nation ; that their society was crude but vigorous from its environment and therefore hopeful for the future. There had been a kind of post-colonial literary group in and around New York, later known as the Knickerbockers, the best repre- sentative of which, Irving, had been "forgiven" by England "for having been born in America." The group had passed away by 1830 and left a hiatus between that date and 1840. The first stage of development, the hewing down of the forest and the building of the cabins, was passing rapidly. The transportation era was fairly inaugurated. The final age of utilitarianism was not yet dreamed of. Those who in this middle period waited patiently the comino; of a national literature in its clue time were encouraged l)y noting the great stimulating ideas and moving causes which marked the approach of the THE MIDDLE PERIOD OF INTELLECTUAL GROWTH 295 meridian of the century. Tlie church, freed from the state, had entered actively upon missionary work, many sects sometimes cooperating under one board. Gradually decentralization set in, various boards were organized, and a rivalry ensued which secured activity if not harmony. The slavery question came as another dividing and stimulating factor in the church. Liberal views in theology and creed appeared, but in A WESTERN MISSION an intellectual and humanitarian guise rather than the old political dress. A peaceful religious revolution ensued, resulting in Unitarianism, and the more ultra form. Transcendentalism. This period of intellectual unrest produced Chan- ning, Emerson, Thoreau, Alcott, and to some extent influenced Hawthorne. It popularized in America a study of German literature and philosophy, which 296 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE ripened Longfellow and others. The kindred move- ment for the abolition of slavery brought out Whittier, while the political aspect of the question made Lowell prominent. The growing national pride and the victories of the people over nature aroused the desire to learn the cause of this rapid development. Records were searched, the collection of public papers inaugu- rated, and the writing of history begun. The newspapers kept pace with this advancement. The first thought had been that the proper home of newspapers would be at the fountain of political news — the national capital. But as the commercial in- terests were developed, it was seen that business must share with political matters and that the newspaper itself must become a great business venture. Grad- ually the hope of editors turned from Washington to the great commercial center of New York city. James Gordon Bennett left the national capital, and in 1835 started a new penny paper, the New York Herald. Horace Greeley, a kind of tramp printer, started with his bundle over his shoulder for " the great metrop- olis," as he called New York city, and in 1841 founded the Tribune. A few years later Henry J. Raymond established the New York Times. The newspapers were greatly hampered by the lack of means to collect news. Frequently the editor was forced to insert such a line as, " No mails from the southward to-day." They therefore eagerly chron- icled the experiments for an improved method of signaling or conveying intelligence to which the fertile minds of American inventors now suddenly turned. THE MIDDLE PERIOD OF INTELLECTUAL GROWTH 297 Communication by semaphore or signal had been employed from early times in the old world. An improved method, by means of which it was thought the Lord's Prayer could be sent from Maine to New Orleans in one hour, was put on exhibition in New York city during the War of 1812, but nothing practical was evolved. The experiments of Joseph Henry ^ on the power of the electric magnet caused Harrison Gray Dyer '^ to string a wire on posts near New York city, and to use the discharge of the electric spark to color litmus paper. By making intervals of different lengths between discharges, he was able to communicate words. In 1837, S. F. B. Morse, professor of the art of design in the University of the City of New York, aided by some associates, exhibited an electric telegraph, transmitting signals through seventeen hundred feet of wire. The House of Representatives had requested the Secretary of the Treasury to investigate the feasi- bility of some system of telegraphy for the govern- ment. When Morse brought his apparatus before the committee of the House, the chairman was so im- pressed that he resigned and took stock in the enterprise. For four years Morse, although often reduced to penury, besieged Congress, and was finally granted ^ Joseph Henry, physicist, was a professor in Princeton college, and after 1846 first director of the Smithsonian Institution at Washington. 2 Dyer was driven from New York on a charge of conspiracy in having transmitted secret intelligence on his wires, and this is often cited as evidence of the superstition of the times. His perse- cution was due to the prevailing excitement about gambling in Wall street, since he was supposed to be in communication with the stock market of Philadelphia. 298 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE $30,000 to aid in building an experimental line. A line of wires between Washington and Baltimore was first put underground in pipes, on wliicli $23,000 of the appropriation was spent, but the insulation failed. The wires w^ere then strung on poles and the news of the nomination of Jas. K. Polk for the presidency was sent from Baltimore to Washington.^ The govern- ment, although convinced of the practical working of Morse's invention, refused to buy his patent for $100,000 and it passed into private hands. For one year the experimental line was used free of charge, and then a tariff of one cent for four characters was placed upon it.^ Under private companies the "iron cord" was extended up and down the Atlantic coast, and in 1846 to Pittsl)urg. The first message sent from there assured President Polk that the Pittsburg volunteers would soon be ready to leave for Mexico. News- papers in securing the news of the war paid large sums for transmission and so extended the use of the invention. Still, incredulous people doubted the pos- sibility of the contrivance, and comic papers showed idlers watching the wires to see the messages pass by. There was at first great rivalry between the O'Reilly and the Bain systems of telegraphy. Duplicate wires ^ A few weeks later the official test was made. Miss Ellsworth, daughter of the commissioner of patents, who had brought to Morse the good news that his appropriation had passed Congress, was allowed to choose the message, and selected " What hath God wrought," from Numbers xxiii., 23. 2 On the experimental line, numbers were used, each of which represented a sentence. The first paid message, "What time is it? " was sent to Baltimore by an unbeliever who was satisfied with the reply " One o'clock." Since the sender had used but two numbers, he demanded his half cent change. THE MIDDLE PERIOD OF INTELLECTUAL GROWTH 209 were strung between all the principal Atlantic cities. Each line catered to the newspapers and they in turn took sides, thereby precipitating a war of words. Additional enterprise was manifest from time to time. In 1846, Bennett had a speech by Clay telegraphed FROM A COMIC PAPER, from Washington and it appeared the following day in the Herald. But the general telegraph service was most inadequate and unreliable. On March 4th, 1849, the New York Tribune received a part of President Taylor's inaugural address by wire but the oj)erator stopped in the middle of a sentence and the editor 300 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE added in a foot note next day: "We shall issue the remainder of this address as soon as received." The operators acted as reporters for the entire newspaper service and were many times at a loss for news. The Tribune once printed tlie following paragraph as the sole contribution of Boston for the day: " We have had no arrivals of importance since Sunday and no accounts of any disasters by the late storm. This day's rain has carried off most of the snow." The editor of the Tribune^ with pardonable irritation, adds : " Did any one ever imagine that the Telegraph was to be used for such stuff as this ? ' ' As has been indicated, the use of the magnetic telegraph was greatly stimulated by the desire to learn the news from the battlefields in Mexico ; also w^iether the United States was to have a war with Great Britain as a result of expansion in the Oregon country. CHAPTER XXV THE OREGON EXPANSION So rapidly advanced the western line of settlement across the continent, and so rapidly national concept and national ambition grew, that within sixty years after the passage of the Declaration of Independence the United States had two claims for western terri- torial expansion pending at the same time. These claims were felt to be so well grounded that a political party in 1844 ventured to put forth the shibboleth, ' ' The reannexation of Texas and the reoccupation of Oregon." Why the "reoccupation" of Oregon? Spain, France, Russia, and England originally laid claim to parts of the North American Pacific coast, but by 1844 the contest had narrowed to England and a new rival, the United States.^ These two had advanced side by side from the Atlantic across the continent, the boundary between them having been adjusted as growth demanded, during a period of sixty-one years. The general custom of nations had been to run boun- daries along watersheds for the sake of river naviga- tion on each side. If this practice, which had been ^ France had finally disposed of her claims when she sold Louisi- ana. Spain yielded her rights to the northwest when she agreed with the United States to run the line of 1819 along the forty-second parallel from the Rockies to the Pacific, thus reserving California and giving Oregon to the United States. In 1824 Russia agreed to make no claims south of fifty-four degrees forty minutes if the United States would make none north of it. 301 302 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE followed largely as far as the Lake of the Woods, had been continued across the continent, a long and com- plicated boundary line would have resulted, as shown in the accompanying map. But the two nations had agreed in 1818 to make an arbitrary line of the forty- ninth parallel as far as the Rocky mountains, and to OREGOX— PROPOSED BOUNDARIES occupy jointly the country beyond until its growing pox^ulation should necessitate a settlement of the question. This line of forty-nine was first used by Great Britain in the Treaty of Utrecht, when France was given possession of all land lying to the south of it. By 1844 population demanded a settlement of the boundary from the mountains to the Pacific. Both England and the United States had claims to set forth. The claims of England to this land lying in the northwest were based upon its occupation by the Hudson Bay Company and by the explorations of Mackenzie.^ The organization, which grew into the gigantic monopoly known as the Hudson Bay Com- pany, had been given supreme control in 1670 of all 1 See chapter XVIII. ~^ THE OREGON EXPANSION 303 lands bordering on the Hudson straits to trade in furs, minerals, and other commodities, in exchange for an annual payment of " two elks and two black beavers." With such slight compensation it was able to accu- mulate a stock of almost two million dollars, of which only fifty thousand was original capital, and to extend its dominion over a territory larger than the present United States. It crushed all competitors from Montreal to Vancouver Island and from the Great Salt Lake to the Yukon. To offset the explorations of Mackenzie, the United States pointed to the voyage of the Columbia and the explorations of Lewis and Clark, already described.^ The advances of the Hudson Bay Company had been duplicated on a smaller scale by the American Fur Company, organized in 1808, by John Jacob Astor, a German immigrant. He proposed to have the United States establish a line of forts from the Great Lakes to the mouth of the Columbia River, for the protection of the American fur traders. At the latter point he established Astoria as a station for the Pacific trade. He proposed to meet British monopoly with American monopoly. Congress passed an act excluding foreign- ers from trading in the Northwest territory, but it was ineffective, since licenses could be procured in the name of some American clerk. There were posts at La Crosse, Fond du Lac, Portage, Rice Lake, Depere, and minor points. Post Henry, on the Lewis river, was the most westerly station. In the War of 1812 Astoria was occupied by the British, but it was restored at the end of the war, thus seeming to give 1 See chapter XVIII. " 304 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE English assent to the American claim. The United States, in 1819, had run with Spain the western line of the Louisiana purchase up the Rocky mountains and along the forty-second parallel to the Pacific. This was the southern limit of Oregon. Thus a claim was derived from the Spanish right of discovery through purchase. It was much weaker than the other arguments, but was added to them. The Rus- sians had been for many years encroaching on this territory, and the famous " Monroe doctrine " of 1820 had been directed partly toward them to show that the Americans intended maintaining possession of the Oregon country. The trapping interests of the Hudson Bay Company would be best served by keeping the northwest an unbroken wilderness. The company had sufficient influence to keep out Englishmen, but could not keep out Americans. It was accused of circulating reports detrimental to the attractiveness of the country, and exaggerating the hostility of the Indians. Many travelers were turned back at Fort Hall, the American gatew^ay to the Oregon country. If rival companies were organized to compete for the fur trade, they were easily crowded out by the superior strength and precedence of the monopoly. It swallowed up the American company and finally secured possession of Astoria. When the number of Americans in Oregon had at last reached two hundred, there were probably five times that number of Hudson Bay employees in the region. But the result furnishes an object-lesson which can not be shown too often. The great monopoly fostered by the English government was THE OREGON EXPANSION 305 defeated by the individual American, backed solely by liis ambition and industry. The company slaugh- tered the buffalo and trapped the beaver, but never turned the fertile soil, harnessed the abundant water- power, nor built permanent homes. The riches of the fur trade must eventually vanish, but the resources of agriculture and manufacture are prac- tically inexhaustible. The trap cannot compete with the plow and the saw. The monopoly shut out English settlers, and England lost part of the Oregon country. The prevalent agitation of migra- tion to Oregon attracted the atten- tion of the mission boards to that country as a field for their labors. OREGOX IXDIANS KA.TIX1; DKAl) WHALE' It was said that some Flathead Indians came all the way to St. Louis in search of the white man's Gospel. In 1834, the Rev. Jason Lee came to the company post at Fort Van- couver by sea with a trader, and began preaching to the settlers from Canada along the Willamette. Two years later, Dr. Marcus Whitman and the Rev. Henry Spaulding, with their wives, came across the plains and mountains, past Fort Hall, where an effort was * From an old wood cut. Such orgies were shown as arguments for sending missionaries to the savages. 306 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE made by the company agents to discourage them and turn them back, as so many had done before, and finally reached the Walla Walla Indians. Here Whitman established the mission of Waiilatpu and Spaulding another on the Clear Water river, a few miles from the present site of Lewiston, Idaho. These men and women labored in the fields and taught the savages civilization as well as doctrine. In 1840 Lee returned to the States, and, by his descriptions of the Oregon country and its needs, secured money and a colony of missionaries who went back to Oregon with him. As yet there was no indi- cation that a rivalry was coming between the British company and the American missionaries. But the governor of Winnipeg was wise and offered liberal inducements to Canadian colonists who would go to the Columbia. After six years' residence in Oregon, Whitman heard of the approach of an English colony of eighty persons from the Red river region, and made haste to start for Washington to spread the alarm. The journey of four thousand miles by way of Santa Fe was accomplished in midwinter and under great difficulties. In the Ashburton treaty just completed, the United States had agreed with England to a continuation of the joint occupation,^ and Whitman could only lay 1 In the treaty of 1842, Lord Ashburton and Daniel Webster set- tled the long dispute concerning which was the true St. Croix river on the northeast boundary between Canada and the United States. They permitted the joint occupation of the country on the north- west beyond the Rockies to continue. Much discussion has arisen concerning the influence which Whitman exerted in Washington. It is doubtful whether he did more than to give the testimony of an eye-witness to the desirability of the Oregon country. Whitman's massacre by the Indians after his return to Oregon has given a certain romantic tinge to all his actions. THE OREGON EXPANSION 307 before President Tyler the truth about the desirability of the Oregon country. Whitman had printed circu- lars and distributed them along the border on his journey east, announcing that he would lead an American colony to the Columbia during the coming spring. In June, 1843, his caravan of two hundred wagons, almost nine hundred people, and thirteen hundred head of cattle, set out from Westport, near where Kansas City now stands, and eventually reached its Oregon destina- tion. That colony not only demonstrated the possibility of going to Oregon by land, but it also contained many men who became the organ- izers of the later state. Over the Oregon trail thus marked out, company after company of emigrants passed and added to the increasing desire of the United States to possess the land. The inherited Revolutionary feeling against England, always just beneath the surface, burst out in sud- den fury. Cheap "patriotism'' ran riot.^ Jingoes ^ As a sample of the rhodomontade of some of these swashbucklers tills extract from a speech in Congress must serve: '' We shall gain territory. . . . We must march from ocean to ocean. We must fulfill what the American poet has said of us from one end of the confederation to the other, 'The broad Pacific chafes our strand, We hear the wide Atlantic roar.' We must march from Texas straight to the Pacific ocean and be bounded only by the roaring wave. ' ' THE DISPUTED OKEGON COUXTKY 308 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE frothed at the mouth. Speeches were made in Con- gress calling for thirty thousand rifles in the valley of the Oregon to annihilate the encroaching Hud- son Bay Company and to assert the right to the territory based on purchase, exploration, and settle- ment. Spain had claimed, although not under an unclouded title, the coast as far north as fifty-four degrees and forty minutes, the old southern boundary of Russian America. To " reoccupy" Oregon, there- fore, would be to exclude the English and to take pos- session of the original claim of the Spanish, which we were said to have acquired with Louisiana. On the other hand, England claimed by occupation all the land to the north of the Columbia, and proposed that river as a final boundary line. The territory in dispute embraced over one thousand miles of the Pacific coast. During the year 1845 and a part of 1846, the scales of war or peace poised in the balance. The United States gave notice of the termination of the joint occupation agreement, and increased her claim to the land by the addition of five thousand immi- grants. A compromise was at last arranged, by which the United States exchanged her theoretical claim of "fifty-four forty" for the better founded extension of the old line of forty-nine degrees. Eng- land yielded the country embraced between forty-nine and the Columbia river in return for the whole of Vancouver Island and the payment of $650,000 damages to the Hudson Bay Company. Twelve years later, war again threatened because of the uncertain southern boundary of Vancouver Island. The dispute THE OREGON EXPANSION 309 was peacefully settled in 1871 by the Emperor of Germany as arbiter. From the territory thus peacefully acquired the states of Washington, Oregon, and Idaho have been made. The national boundary was thus fully rounded out in the northwest ; but if the line of American domain could have been extended to the famous *' fifty-four forty," it would have touched southern Alaska and the continental union of the United States would then have been complete. CHAPTER XXVI THE ACQUISITION OF TEXAS To suppose that the expansion of the American people in both territory and union could be accom- plished without internal dissension, would be to over- look the tendencies of human nature. Extension geographically always brings the danger of the sepa- ration of divergent parts, especially if the geographic lines of separation coincide with any lines of inherited differences. It would be much more proper to speak of the expansion across the American continent of two peoples living under tlie same government, but divided into a north and a south. The inherited feeling between dissenter and churchman was inten- sified by climatic influences, which made the one frugal and the other hospitable ; the one commercial and the other agricultural ; the one austere and the other genial. It was also true that climate made the employment of slave labor unprofitable in the one and profitable in the other, but to consider slavery as the sole cause of the discord is to consider immediate instead of remote causes. For almost a century this jealous fear of supremacy continued between the factions, and in no place were its effects more evident than in the struggle for the control of representation in the national government. Considering population as the basis of representa- tion, and territory as necessary for the growth of 310 THE ACQUISITION OF TEXAS 311 population, the southerner could not with any satis- faction view the Louisiana purchase as it took final shape. It was true that the demand for Louisiana had arisen in the southwest, but the line of 1819 as finally settled limited southern expansion to the Sabine on the west. The purchase had assumed the shape of a huge triangle, whose upper line extended from the head of the Mississippi to the Pacific ocean, but which narrowed down southwardly to the state of Louisiana alone. South of the "Missouri compromise line" which limited slavery and southern interests, were less than 224,445 square miles. North of the line lay over 964,667 square miles. That meant one or possibly two states for the south and at least six or seven for the north. ^ Yet even here the thought that the extension of the southern national boundary line over Texas was due entirely to the desire of the southern section for political power falls short of the broader view of the laws of expansion. The people went up and took possession of the land. Statesmen could foster but could not compel the migration of Americans across the Sabine unless the expansive instinct had so drawn them. Forbidden trade was doubly attractive to the 1 The Missouri compromise of 1820 prohibited slavery in all states north of the line of thirty-six degrees and thirty minutes except m the state of Missouri. The original understood division between free and slave states was the boundary between Pennsylvania and Maryland. By the ordinance of 1787 which forbade slavery north of the Ohio, that river became an extension of the dividing line. Since the Ohio bends to the south and the Missouri line ran from its mouth, or almost on the southern boundary of Virginia, the southern people felt that they had been cheated of a strip as ^vlde as that state. These extensions of the line dividing the two sections were due to circumstances at the time each was decided upon. 312 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE peripatetic merchant of the frontier, while grassy plains and fertile lowlands allured his companion, the "squatter." The vast Mexican region beyond the Sabine was ruled from distant Chihuahua in true Spanish style. Military and ecclesiastical law held full sway ; civil law was unknown. Foreigners without passports were supposed to be imprisoned ; trading across the Sabine was prohibited. The thinly populated region and the adjacent parts of the Gulf invited pirates and filibustering expeditions. Several small expeditions followed that of Burr, and several incipient rebellions arose, in all of which Americans were present.^ So strong had American interests become in S^Danish Texas by 1819, that Henry Clay and others objected to the Sabine instead of the Rio Grande as the line which finally settled the disputed Louisiana boundary and really exchanged Texas for Florida. In this negotiation with Spain, the United States wanted both Florida and Texas, but the more pressing need was for Florida. Texas was to be left to the course of time. In 1820 Mexico was strong enough to revolt against Spain, and in four years, after four changes of government, the United States of Mexico was created, including Texas. At this time there were probably ^ In local histories, see descriptions of the pirates of Barrataria, of Jean Lafitte, of the adventures of Toledo, Berry, Philip Nolan, Ellis P. Bean, and of James Long. President Madison issued a proclamation, September 1, 1815, against Texan expeditions organ- izing in the United States. In 1819 the Spanish minister turned in a list of thirty-three Spanish vessels captured by freebooters and brought into ports of the United States. He added a list of twenty- eight vessels fitted out in these ports to prey upon Spanish vessels or dependencies. THE ACQUISITION OF TEXAS 313 three thousand Americans beyond the Sabine, living mostly at Nacogdoches and along the road to San Antonio de Bexar. The Spanish were gathered about this latter point and at Goliad farther down the San Antonio river. Mexico was desirous of further peo- pling Texas with foreigners and gave large tracts of land to emprcsarios (contractors) who engaged to settle families upon them. The grant made to Moses Austin^ was the first, but soon there appeared grants AUSTIN, TiiXAS, IN 1840 to De Witt, of Missouri ; Ross and Leftwich, of Ten- nessee ; Milam, of Kentucky ; Burnet, of Ohio ; Thorn, of New York ; McMullin, Powers, and Hewitson, of Ireland ; Cameron, of Scotland, and others, until almost the entire state was so parceled out. About 1825 the rush for Texas began. No such ^ Moses Austin, of Connecticut, after engaging in lead mining in the west, went to Texas, and in 1820 secured permission to colonize three hundred American families near Bexar. His son, Stephen F. Austin, carried out the plan after his father's death. The principal town in his grant was San Felipe de Austin (now Austin). 314 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE spectacle had ever before been seen. " Gone to Texas" was written upon the door of many a deserted dwelling of Kentucky, Tennessee, and Alabama. *' Go to Texas" was a poxDular slang phrase. On the western steamboats the ofhcers' quarters on the hur- ricane deck from their remoteness were called ' ' the texas." When a man wished to coerce his family or friends, he threatened to go to Texas. It was felt to be beyond the natural limits of the world. The glamour which had attracted Aaron Burr still hovered over the mystic land of the southwest. So rapidly did it allure Americans to the pathway which led down the Mississippi to the Red river, up that stream to Shreveport and across into Texas, that their number had increased to twenty thousand by 1830, and Mexico became alarmed and tried to stop the coming. Perhaps she remembered the exj^erience of Spain and the results of encouraging the settling of Americans across the Mississipj)i a decade before.^ Numerous projects accompanied this migration to anew country. Lundy, the Abolition agitator, made three journeys to Texas hoping to secure lands for a colony of negroes. He found nearly every state in the Union represented among the inhabitants. Many free negroes were living on small farms ; in some cases blacks and whites together. He was disgusted with the "scratching" of the soil by the Mexicans with their old-fashioned plows, horrified at the bloodshed of their bull-fights, and charmed with the richness of the country and the possibilities of its future. The resident Americans were inconvenienced by a lack of ^ See chapter XVI. THE ACQUISITION OF TEXAS 315 utensils. Farmers had to go five miles to grind their scythes. During Lundy's stay the cholera raged, with no physicians, and no remedies save camphor, lauda- num, and mustard. Friction was constantly felt between the Mexicans and Americans. Two of the latter were thrown into prison for refusing to uncover and kneel when the sacred "host" was passing in procession. In the election of 1834, but one of the three members from Texas elected to the state legislature of Coahuila and , -~pM|»-««j-T.« PAPER MONKY OF THE TEXAN REPUBLIC Texas was an American. Lundy said that they com- plained that the "foreigners have no representation at all!" After weeks of w^aiting, during which the Mexican governor found the weather at times too hot and at times too cold to attend to official business, Lundy succeeded in getting a grant of interior land.^ The deed was written on a sheet of stamped paper which cost the Abolitionist three of his few dollars. ^ Lundy, in 1837, published a pamphlet entitled "The War in Texas . . . showing that this contest is a crusade against Mexico set on foot and supported by slave-holders, land-speculators, etc., in order to re-establish, extend, and perpetuate the system of slavery and slave trade." 316 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE But as soon as tlie rush from the southern states began, "the vile project of the Texas invaders" to introduce slavery, as he said, prevented the consum- mation of his plan. No sooner did Mexico try to close the door against this influx of Americans than the natural antipathy between Saxon and Gaul became manifest. The grasping record of the Americans made tlie Mexicans fear the loss of Texas, and color was lent to the fear by the repeated offers of the United States to buy as far as the Rio Grande.^ The Indians feared the Americans and did not annoy their settlements, and to the Mexicans these two appeared leagued together. The Mexican government therefore stopped further colonization, canceled all but three of the land grants, forbade the importation of slaves, closed all save one of the ports along the American side, placed the ordinary tariff on implements and articles commonly brought in free by Americans, and was accused of trying to encourage the colonization of criminals and beggars in Texas. ^ 1 In one of these offers the United States rose to five million dol- lars, but to no purpose. 2 " It is well known that Texas has already received a very con- siderable proportion of its present population in emigrants from the United States. . . Santa Fe (also) may be considered in some sense an American town, the stores being filled with American goods and the streets with American people. The Americans have explored tlie whole country from the sources of the Rio del Norte to its mouth in search of furs and in pursuit of a lucrative traffic. There are few of the towns of New Mexico in which more or less of them are not to be found. Constantly oppressed by the ignorant, miserable, bigoted, petty despots of these semi-barbarous regions, who assume to be republican rulers of an amicable sister republic, the United States emigrants, like the Jews, multiply and thrive under the extortions and cruelties practiced upon them." From Flint's Geography (1832), p. 462. THE ACQUISITION OF TEXAS 317 It might be argued that Mexico had aright to legis- late for her own territory, but Americans have always insisted that such legislation be just, and that the justice be determined by the American standard. Therefore, headed by Houston,^ they defied these restrictions, swarmed over the borders, and car- ried on a contraband trade under the protection of cannon. When Texas openly revolted against Mexico in 1835, two comjDanies of New Orleans volunteers BUINS OF THE ALAMO participated, besides other companies from Mobile and Kentucky, probably eight hundred in all. An officer of the United States army searching for deserters found two hundred serving in the Texan ^ Samuel Houston was a native of Virginia but was reared on the frontier of Tennessee. He rose to the governorship of that state, but suddenly deserted his office and family and went to live among the Cherokee Indians, adopting their garb. Going to Texas in 1832, he took an active part in the revolution, and was eventually elected the first president of the republic; after the admission of the state he served many years in the United States Senate. 318 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE army, the commander of which refused to send them back. The names of Davy Crockett/ James Bowie/ and other frontier fighters, are connected with this struggle and with the massacres of the Alamo and of Goliad.^ Of the total population, only about one-fourth were Americans and few of these possessed citizenship. Yet tliey made themselves the governing class. When in March, 1836, at New Washington, a town on the Brazos river, fifty-eight delegates declared the independent state of Texas, only three of them were Mexicans. The others had come from the United States, chiefly from the southern states. It is not remarkable that Texas immediately sought annexa- tion with this country. Annexation was opposed in the United States by sympathizers with the anti-slavery agitation which had arisen a few years before. It was true that the Texas constitution, framed under alarm at this hostile movement, had fastened slavery securely on the state. It provided that slaves born to life servitude could 1 Perhaps the most picturesque frontier character is Davy Crockett of Tennessee. He had little education but was a skillful shot and a noted story-teller. He served several terms in Congress, and eventually joined the Texans in their struggle. 2 James Bowie of Georgia, at one time in a general fight after a duel, killed a man with a knife which iiad been made from a black- smith's file. Its shape was copied by cutlers, and thus originated the famous "bowie-knife." 3 The Mexicans under Santa Anna, wiio liad practically seized the Mexican government, put to death in the Alamo mission at San Antonio one hundred and eighty-two Americans, some of them after having surrendered. At Goliad he executed three hundred prisoners. He was captured soon after by the Texans, but his life was spared and he was sent to the United States, where he was received by President Jackson and was eventually returned to Mexico. THE ACQUISITION OF TEXAS 319 not be emancipated ; that the Texan congress could not free a shave nor could an owner do so without the consent of the congress ; that no free negro should be permitted in Texas without the permission of the con- gress ; and that the importation of slaves from any country other than the United States should consti- tute piracy. Regardless of the slavery question, many hesitated to annex Texas so long as she was a revolt- m a ^ -- "^ =^__^' 'gll^>^ -=^- § ___ -~_^ is ^^1^ -''- — — -. \ TEXAS— FIRST CAPITOL, OF THE REPUBLIC* ing territory in war with the parent country, although her independence was acknowledged by Congress. During the ten years in which Texas maintained her independence through a series of threatenings and fiascos between herself and Mexico,^ the United States government preserved a kind of neutrality, but actions by the people j^lainly showed the trend of events. Men were openly recruited in New Orleans to aid the Texans, and at one time General Gaines *From Lubbock's "Six Decades in Texas." Several of the illus- trations in this chapter are due to the courtesy of Dr. George P. Garrison, of the University of Texas. 1 At one time the Texans tried to extend their territory to Santa Fe in what President Jackson called "a wild goose campaign," but the expedition brQUght no permanent results. 320 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE was sent by the United States across the Sabine with an armed force "to anticipate threatened Indian hostilities." Conservative annexationists revived the abandoned claim that the Louisiana purchase had extended to the Rio Grande, and so brought out the cry of "reannexation of Texas." At last the mask was thrown off, the bogie-man of foreign intervention was again brought out,^ and the United States, after years of quibbling, yielded to the wishes of material interests and annexed the now Americanized Texas. ^ England, as usual, protested, and Mexico withdrew her minister, but the United States had added almost four hunded thousand square miles to her national territory.^ It seemed to be tlie fate of the United States to inherit with each accession of territory a boundary dispute. The vastness of the country, the limited exploration, the lack of surveys, and especially in the case of Spanish territory the unsettled and shifting ^ In his annual message to Congress in 1845, President Polk said : " We may rejoice that the tranquil and pervading influence of the American principle of self-government was sufficient to defeat the purposes of British and French interference, and that the almost unanimous voice of the people of Texas has given to that interfer- ence a peaceful and effective rebuke." 2 In 1820 a Spaniard in New Orleans wrote to the king of Spain begging him not to give Florida to the Americans, since it would make them hope to acquire Texas later. " The Anglo-Americans," said he, " trampling under foot the sacred rights of property recog- nized by all other nations, have poured in great numbers across the pretended boundary of the Sabine river and now shamelessly declare their purpose to penetrate even to the heart of the kingdom of Mexico." ^ These figures include not only the present area of Texas, but almost one hundred thousand square miles lying northwest, which that state claimed and which the United States purchased at a cost of ten million dollars to add to the public domain. See the map on page 332. THE ACQUISITION OF TEXAS 321 ownership, made such disputes well-nigh unavoidable. The line between the jointly represented states of Coahuila and Texas had never been permanently settled on either the Nueces or Rio Grande rivers, although the Nueces had been understood when the two states were formally separated by Texas. On DKPAimKK OF THi: T T! I f,.\M IPIha TGirNTi:ri;s \-(ai Mi:Xi((,, \..U, J.AW.S. »> maps of the day the country between the two rivers was marked '' Immense droves of wild animals." It was a barren tract almost devoid of inhabitants, yet human nature was simply asserting itself when the Texans claimed to the Rio Grande. It made a much longer and better boundary, and rounded out their state. 322 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE President Polk sent a special ambassador to Mexico to claim redress for " the grievous wrongs perpetrated upon our citizens throughout a long period of years," including this boundary question. Mexico was in the midst of one of her periodic revolutions and could do nothing. Meanwhile, as if to invite a quarrel, the United States forces moved into the disputed strip and were attacked by Mexicans who crossed the Rio Grande. The Americans drove them back across the river and occupied the town of Matamoras. There was thus some question of the truth of President Polk's message to Congress saying that "after repeated mena.ces, Mexico had passed the boundary of the United States, has invaded our territory and shed American blood upon American soil."^ The result- ing Mexican war is deplorable : Because it furnished to Europe the spectacle of sister rei)ublics, each of which had gained independ- ence through great effort, now warring on each other. Because the United States was so much stronger in arms, resources, and intelligence, that it will always bear the suspicion of being a war for spoils. Because the strip of country in question was not worth the war. Because the war was sustained largely in the south through sympathy with the Texan immigrants, and the anti-slavery element of the north claimed that it was a war for the prolongation of slavery and that ^ Abraham Lincoln, a Whig representative from Illinois, brought only ridicule upon himself by introducing resolutions calling upon the President to designate the "spot" where the invasion had taken place. A man who opposes war runs comiter to public feeling. THE ACQUISITION OF TEXAS 323 tlie government had become a tool in the hands of that power. ^ Because the war, therefore, instead of drawing more closely the bonds of union, which is at last the only consolation in a foreign war, widened still more the breach between tlie two sections. Because the United States gave further grounds to the charge of a war for spoils by claiming as fruit of the contest the Mexican province of Upper California. ^ The population of Texas was made up not only of southerners, but also of emigrants from the northern states as well as many from England. However, the southern people predominated, and the anti-slavery element was arrayed against the war Lowell devoted part of the first series of " The Biglow Papers " to ridiculing it. 'yA^ 1 raB^?s*-«5i^&-m M^^ tTNITED STATES DESPOILIXG MEXICO Mr. Trist (very firmly,) " My Government, Gentlemen, will take ' nothin ' shorter. —From a comic paper, 1847. CHAPTER XXVII THE CONQUEST OF UPPER CALIFORNIA The invading Spaniards under Cortez gave the name *' California " to the North American coast of the Pacific ocean because of its fancied resemblance to "the great island of California," described in a popular romance of that time. Spanish California included all land lying west of the Rocky moun- tains, and was ■ |-HH||||||| 1 roughly divided into " lliltlMlll! J^ Upper and Lower California at the liead of the gulf bearing that name. San Diego, in Up- per California, was settled about 1769, and Spanish dominion was extended northward until it came into contact with the Russian and English fur-trading companies. The Spanish government was administered in each province by an alcalde, or mayor, who resided at the presidio, or military post. Within the adobe walls, some twelve feet high, were located the barracks, administrative houses, and a chapel. The alcalde was also the official head of tlie pueblo or Spanish settle- 324 VICKROY'.S PALACE, SANTA FE THE CONQUEST OF UPPER CALIFORNIA 325 ment adjacent to the fort. The most important 'presidios were at San Diego, Santa Barbara, and at Yerba Buena, afterwards named San Francisco. The national religion of Spain was Roman Catholic, and under the protection of the government the Fran- ciscan monks had established in California about twenty missions. The mission consisted of a church, HO^E^tt SA>f GABKIEL MISSION* cloisters, workshop, and storehouse, arranged about an o^Den court. The converted Indians were emx^loyed under the direction of the fathers in tilling the fields and cultivating the vineyards. Their little thatched conical huts, constituting the rancheria, or village, * The illustrations of the old Spanish southwest in this chapter appear through the kindness of Dr. M. L. Miller, department of Anthropology, the University of Chicago. 326 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE were gathered near the mission, the whole under the protection of the lyresidio. The Spanish soldier did not add as much to civili- zation as did the priest. A few soldiers brought their wives to the presidios, but there were no schools and no attempt at agriculture by the Spaniards. The dull days were siDent in gambling, horse-racing, cock- fighting, and dancing. Horses and cattle were intro- duced, but in too great num- bers for imme- diate use. Be- ing allowed to run wild, their numbers great- ly increased, and by 1826 jg. ■"..HP'" "* \ , .. ships began K --' ^^^j^stsiai calling^ at the KiiNs OK si'AMSH M18S1U.N, NEW MEXICO ciinerent v^aii- fornia ports for the hides and tallow of the wild cattle.^ Hides passed as current money, at the rate of two dollars each. The news of the revolt of Mexico reached this upper province in 1822, and the Mexican flag quietly sup- planted the red and yellow of the Spaniard. During the ensuing years of peace, a number of Americans found their way over the mountains and around by vessel to the fertile valleys of California. Many ^ Of the sixty-one vessels which entered Cahfornia ports between 1836 and 1840, twenty-six were American. One of these was the Pilgrim, of Boston, in which sailed Richard Henry Dana. He described his experiences in "Two Years Before the Mast." THE CONQUEST OF UPPER CALIFORNIA 327 married Californian wives and applied for citizen- ship, never returning to the states. The strict law concerning foreigners coming into Mexican ter- ritory was never rigidly enforced in this outlying district. There was a little group of these aliens at Monterey, but more at New Helvetia, on the Amer- ican river, commonly called Sutter's Fort.^ Sutter had proved to the Mexican government that he was a good Roman Catholic and a desirable resident and had been granted land in the Sacramento valley. He later added to his territory by a purchase from the Russians. In 1840 he built a fort at the junction of the American river with the Sacramento. A space about five hun- dred feet lono; and one hundred and fifty feet wide was enclosed by adobe walls eighteen feet high and three feet thick, the whole being guarded by brass and iron cannon. Sutter ruled as potentate over the civilized Indians and the white people gathered at his fort, purchasing 1 John Augustus Sutter, born of Swiss parentage, came to Amer- ica and entered the St. Louis and Santa Fe trade. Crossing the mountains he embarked in the Pacific coast trade, and being ship- wrecked at what is now San Francisco Bay, went inland to found his trading post of New Helvetia (New Switzerland). A California correspondent of the New York Tribune of April 7, 1849, gave the pronunciation Sooter, as Sutter himself called it. A BUILDING IX SUTTKR S FORT 1 328 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE their products and shipping his goods to San Fran- cisco in his own sailing vessels. In the meantime the Americans were invading California in another direction along the Sante Fe trail. In 1819 Arkansas was made into a territory and the frontiersmen of Kentucky and Tennessee found new homes along the Arkansas and White rivers. Those with a mercantile instinct went up the Canadian, a branch of the Arkansas, and across to Spanish Santa Fe, to engage in a trade long forbidden -_ - ^ -., by Spain. Since only a limited ^ amount of mer- ^Jdfl| chandise could 9HH| b e transported rB I . rlTltfTT^KLll^'vfK ^^^ ^^^^^ manner f ..m^^"^^ ll^^^^^^m ^^J streams, the k ^^^^^BI^'HH Santa Fe trade L m soon found a new ■H^IHHiHHHK M ^^^y directly OLD AND NEW AKCHITECTURE, ALBUQUERUUK, N. MEX. tlClOSS lUe pi cll- ries in great wagons drawn by mules and oxen. It grew to large proportions after the independence of Mexico. Amidst the crack of the long whips, the cry of "All's set" passed about, and the great caravans moved out from Independence, Missouri, in four parallel columns, with guards riding in front. About one hundred and fifty miles distant, the line halted for the "catch up," before starting on the seventy days' journey. A "Santa Fe assortment" consisted of woolen and cotton goods, silks, hardware, and notions. On the return journey, THE CONQUEST OF UPPER CALIFORNIA 329 gold-dust or bullion, furs, buffalo rugs, wool, and Mexican blankets were brought back. The provisions consisted of bacon, flour, coffee, sugar, and salt. Buffalo would furnish fresh meat on the way. The cost of the goods was increased about one hundred per cent by the journey, but nevertheless the trade grew from about fifteen thousand dollars in 1822 to over a million dollars in 1846. The Mexicans became alarmed at these invasions of California. The revolution in Texas was an alarming object- lesson. But when the Mexican gov- ernor of Califor- nia in 1840, on the rumor of an American upris- ing, attempted to banish forty foreigners, he accomplished little save furnishing a basis for claims of the United States against his government. At one time the Stars and Stripes were raised at Monterey by an over-zealous naval commander, but taken down with an apology. Some Americans came down from Oregon. Expedi- tions carrying women and children ventured directly 330 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE across the Rocky mountains. California could not remain in its uncertain ownership. It was called " Naboth's vineyard" by the Americans who thought that France or England coveted it. Lord Palmers- ton's defiant speech in the House of Lords was quoted and burlesqued in a cartoon which showed him and General Taylor in a boxing match. Covetousness, indeed, may have added to the desire in the United States for war with Mexico ; certainly, as the war progressed, the natural longing for Cali- fornia took shape in a popular demand for that country as a prize of war. General Kearny^ was instructed to invade California from Fort Leaven- worth, and to pass through New Mexico to the Pacific, conquering the inhabitants and establishing govern- ment in the name of the United States of America. Commodores Sloat and Stockton were sent to take possession of the settlements along the coast. ^ In the meantime John C. Fremont, the American explorer, had been ordered by the California author- ities at Monterey to leave the San Joaquin valley where his expedition was resting. He refused, and erected a fort about thirty miles from Monterey, over which he raised the American flag. Subsequently ^When the War of 1812 began, Stephen W. Kearny, of New Jersey, entered the army as captain of volunteers and remained in the service. At the beginning of the Mexican war he was in com- mand of the western division and was ordered to take possession of New Mexico. In the progress of the war he served in Mexico and died of disease contracted tiiere. -Sloat, who was in command of the Pacific squadron, was ordered to occupy Monterey, upon rumor that the British admiral intended to take possession of that port. Stockton sailed around Cape Horn to serve as commander-in-chief of the Pacific squadron. He directed the later movements in California and sent a relief detail to meet Kearny. THE CONQUEST OF UPPER CALIFORNIA 331 he withdrew into Oregon, but in 1846 returned under government orders ' ' to watch over the American interests. ' ' He cooperated with the revolting Amer- icans who raised their * ' bear flag ' ' and erected an independent state, July 4, 1846, with Fremont as governor. When Commodore Sloat seized Monterey, SITE or SPANISH FORT, MONTEREY Fremont joined him and raised a California battalion. He was made military and civil governor by Stock- ton after the news of the Mexican war reached Cali- fornia.^ *John Charles Fremont, a Georgian, was connected with the United States topographical surveys in the southern states, and in 1842 was given charge of an expedition to examine the South Pass as a route to Oregon. He subsequently made several expeditions, both official and private, until he had traversed many parts of the western land and had gained for himself the title of "Path- 332 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE When Kearny arrived, after suffering great hard- ships on his overland journey, a dispute arose between him and Stockton, but communication with Washing- ton was eventually established and order ensued/ In the treaty of peace with Mexico that country was despoiled of all the land lying west of the Rio Grande and north of the Gila. The Americans ran the boundary line at will, bending it southward to embrace the port of San Diego. They added over five hundred thousand square miles to the public domain. A few years later a small tract south of the Gila, into which a few Amer- icans had ventured, was added by purchase from Mexico for the sum of ten million dollars.^ This was in addition to the THE TEXAS AND a^iFOKNiA EX- fi f t G c u milliou prcvlously given for California proper. Punishing an enemy by depriving him of territory is finder." Ten thousand copies of the report of his first expedition were printed and distributed by Congress. They greatly en- couraged western migration. Fremont's achievements inspired Whittier's "Tlie Pass of the Sierra" and laudations from other pens, but old trappers who had traversed the mountains alone and unaided were inclined to believe his accomplishments overestimated. ^ In the contest between Stockton and Kearny, Fremont acknowl- edged the orders of the former, and was later tried by court-martial and sentenced to be dismissed from the service. The penalty was remitted by President Polk, but Fremont resigned. ^ The negotiations were conducted by James Gadsden, minister to Mexico, and the land is called "Gadsden's Purchase." The enor- mous price paid for forty-five thousand square miles of poor land will always give critics of America ground for claiming that it was largely conscience money. They also say that the Americans always begin diplomatic negotiations by asking "How much will you take?" THE CONQUEST OF UPPER CALIFORNIA 333 a rule of nations in the old world. From an American standpoint, the spoliation of weak Mexico is inexcus- able save on the old law of the fittest coming into its own. *' Manifest destiny" will always accompany the greater force of arms. The "duty" of the United States to take outlying provinces under its protection rests upon the demands of American trade and American interests. More Americans hurried to the new possessions. They found the people living much as their ancestors had lived in old Spain. In topography and climate the region much resembled Spain. Moun- tains and high plains gave op- portunity for irrigation. In the valleys herding was followed. All carrying was done on pack-mules. The Americans likened the adobe built cities, when seen at a distance, to an extensive brick- yard. In strange looking boxes mounted on solid wooden wheels, whole families came to church or to celebrate their many saint days with fireworks, pro- cessions, and bonfires. Their churches, with the bat- tered bells and carved beams, appeared to belong to another world. The people dressed in fantastic colors, and seemed, in their windowless houses, to regard THE BELLS OF SAN GABRIK 334 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE mirrors as the criterion of wealth. In their little gardens they raised delicious fruits and melons. The bustling American invasion soon changed this picturesque scene. San Francisco was built up at the rate of fifty houses in one month. A pony mail was es- tablished between San Francisco and San Diego, start- ing every two weeks. A vessel loaded with Mor- mons from New York and Vermont came into San Francisco, fol- lowed by another bearing a company of United States volunteers raised to settle i^erma- nently in Califor- nia. A wagon road Missouri, and trails A military gov- THE GREEDY BOY* was established overland from were made through New Mexico. ernment had been set up, as has been said, by Kearny, * This cartoon of the time represents Uncle Sam as a greedy boy taking not only Texas and California, but Mexico as well. Queen Victoria, who stands by, fears nothing will be left for the Prince of Wales, but Louis yffipo l oon reminds her that England is fond of Indian bonbons and France of Algerian tobacco. They are all en- gaged in grabbing territory. THE CONQUEST OF UPPER CALIFORNIA 335 ill 1846, and California entered upon her evolution toward statehood, an event hastened beyond imagi- nation by the discovery of some bits of yellow metal at Sutter's mill, January 19, 1848. CHAPTER XXVIII GOLD, THE NEW FACTOR IN AMERICAN EXPANSION When Upper California came into the possession of the United States by conquest, there were iDrobably not ten thousand civilized persons in it. Three years later it had a po]Dulation of ninety thousand, and was admitted as a state without passing through the pre- paratory stage of a territory. Tliis unprecedented state of affairs was due to a deadlock in Congress oyer the question of slavery in the territorial govern- ment to be i)rovided, and to the wonderful growth of population owing to the discovery of gold. The Spaniard had neglected ordinary occupations in search- ing for the precious metal ; the Americans stumbled on it by chance in i^reparing for the ordinary pursuit of manufacturing. In conducting the various enterprises connected with New Helvetia, Sutter felt the need of a sawmill and sent some men up the American river about forty miles to locate the mill at a proper site. In digging the tail-race to carry off the water, a lumberman named Marshall,^ in charge of building the mill, found a few small bits of gold. Others say that some Mormon workmen under Marshall first found the metal. ^ James Wilson Marshall, a native of New Jersey, emigrated to California in 1844 and served in the "bear flag" war. After his discovery of gold, his land was seized and he was reduced to extreme poverty in his old age. Sutter experienced the same fate. 336 GOLD, THE NEW FACTOR IN AMERICAN EXPANSION 337 The news spread with astonishing rapidity. San Francisco w^as the first pLace of importance to hear of the discovery, and within four months had lost three- fourths of its population. One man bought a horse for fifteen dollars and after reaching the diggings hired it out for one hundred dollars per week. Men paid as much as five hundred dollars for a rowboat in THE .SLITTER MILL* which to row up to Sutter's Fort. The city council of San Francisco adjourned permanently, the churches were closed, and the two newspaj)ers sus- pended because their editors had joined the hegira. From Southern California and Mexico came Amer- icans and Mexicans, almost depopulating San Jose *From the painting by Nahl, owned by Julius Jacobs, San Fran- cisco. 338 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE and Monterey. An alguazil (constable) brought along ten prisoners from his jail and set them working for him. The American cooks and soldiers deserted from the California forts until the officers were compelled to do their own cooking. The news spread to the Sandwich Islands and brought over thousands of Chinese. Twenty-seven vessels left Honolulu within four months carrying six hundred persons. The news went thence by vessel to Vancouver Island and so reached the Americans in Oregon, many of whom came down into California. In his message, upon the assembling of Congress in 1848, President Polk said that, unwilling to credit the reports coming from the gold fields, he had sent an officer who verified the announcement of the dis- covery. The supply was very large and the metal w^as found over an extensive district. The effects had produced a marvelous change of affairs in California. The following is extracted from the Pres- ident's Message : Labor commands a most exorbitant price, and other pursuits but that of searching for the precious metals are abandoned. Nearly the whole of the male population has gone to the gold districts. Ships arriving on the coast are deserted by their crews and their voyages suspended for want of sailors. Our commanding officer there entertains apprehensions that soldiers cannot be kept in the public service witiiout a large increase of pay. Desertions in his command have become frequent, and he recommends that those who shall withstand the strong temptation and remain faithful should be rewarded. The contagion of migrating to California spread with lightning rapidity and affected all classes. It furnished themes for popular songs, employment for fortune-tellers, texts for sermons, and proved a boon GOLD, TEIE NEW FACTOR IN AMERICAN EXPANSION 339 to tlie manufacturers of rubber boots and clothing, arms and ammunition. The streets of New York were filled with "Forty-niners," wearing broad felt hats of a reddish brown hue, loose rough coats reach- ing to the knee, and high boots. They bristled with weapons. Many of the volunteers just discharged from the army of the Mexican war joined the bands for California in search of new adventures. The New York bakeries kept their ovens hot day and THE RUBBER LnSTE TO CALIFORNIA night supplying sea bread to vessels sailing for Panama or about Cape Horn. Old goods, long since thought unsalable, were brought out and sold to the departing adventurers. Pistols and patent medicines were in especial demand. It was possible to secure *The inscription below this cartoon reads, "From the Atlantic to the Pacific, through in no time. The principle of this Railway is such that if the Passengers are nicely balanced both in mind and body all that is necessary to land at the 'Gold diggens' is to cut the line on the Atlantic side, then by one jerk, they reach in safety their place of destination. Reverse the above and they are back again." 340 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE arms from the government bj making affidavit of intention to go to California. During the first two months of 1849, one hundred and thirty-seven vessels sailed from the Atlantic ports carrying eight thousand men, and seventy more were fitting out. The most dreaded feature of the journey for those who went by Panama was crossing the Isthmus. A traveler sent back an account of his experiences to a New York newspa- per : ' ' Mounted on our hardy mules," he says, "we made our way along the path through forests and over rocks in the most breakneck style I ever experienced. But we went through it good- humoredly , and I rather think the Isthmus has not lieard such yelling and shouting since Balboa came across. Fancy yourself riding and walking at once, your mule over his knees in mud, and your feet, especially if you are tall, dragging on the earth, unless 3^ou tie tliem to his neck. . . . We gave three cheers when the blue sheet of the Pacific came in sight." He found four hundred others on the Pacific coast w^aiting for a vessel to convey them to California and paying four dollars per day board in the meantime. CROSSIXU THE ISTHMUS (FROM AN OLD CUT GOLD, THE NEW FACTOR IN AMERICAN EXPANSION 341 If the conservative, older states were thus affected, one may imagine the excitement along the migratory frontier as the news gradually spread among the set- tlers. Little preparation was needed by these hardy frontiersmen for the journey of two thousand miles. They had choice of the Oregon or the Santa Fe trail. The northern or Oregon trail was most generally chosen, since it was the shorter. From St. Joseph or Independence, near the Missouri, it led along the Platte river to Fort Laramie, the western outpost. Along this way the line of ' ' prairie schooners ' ' (FROM AX OLD WOOD CUT I stretched for miles, ^ being drawn up in a corral at night as an enclosure for the grazing animals, and stretching away again soon after break of day. The ferries were inadequate to the demand, and it was necessary to register on arrival in order to secure one's turn. Sometimes two hundred w^agons were thus waiting, and a single ferry transferred over nine hundred wagons in one summer. A traveler counted four hundred and fifty-nine wagons in ten miles along ^ The sides of the beds of these wagons had such a shear that they bore a fancied resemblance to a boat. The coupling was also un- usually long. The white canvas cover likewise suggested the sail of a vessel. 342 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE the Platte. The men were picturesque in their woolen shirts, canvas jackets, and high toj) boots. Each car- ried a gun and two revolvers. Many of the w^onien trudged along on foot, some carrying children. At intervals one saw a little mound w^ith a board at the head, upon which a cliild's name had been burned with a hot iron. The trail was strewn with utensils and household goods abandoned to lighten the load. The position of women in this movement was unique. Some ex^^eclitions were organized for the sole iDurpose of taking them to California. Enterpris- ing steamboat captains would frequently cry " Ladies on board" to attract travelers. It was estimated that women made up only two per cent of the popula- tion in the mining camps and but eight per cent of that of San Francisco. It Avas said that the chief Cjualification of an early governor was the presence of his wife and two daughters. Tickets to a wedding sold readily at five dollars each. Miners separated from home would frequently travel miles to see a child, and would weep at the sound of its voice. A child born in the diggings received presents of gold- dust that would have constituted a modest fortune in the states. With such numbers of i)eople, proper sanitary arrangements were impossible. The cholera epidemic of 1849 carried off over five thousand of these immi- grants gathered along the Missouri. Yet thousands more painted on their wagon tops "Ho for the diggings," purchased one of the numerous printed and pressed on up tlie easy slopes leading GOLD, THE NEW FACTOR IN AMERICAN EXPANSION 343 to the South Pass of the Rocky moiintaiiis.^ Here some amused themselves by carrying a pail of water from the Sweetwater, a branch of the Platte, to the Little Sandy, a branch of the Green, and so wedding the waters of the Atlantic and Pacific. Thence to Fort Hall the way was easy along the Oregon trail, but at the fort the travelers turned south up the Snake river and Goose creek to the dreaded "Amer- AT NIGHT OX THE CALIFORXIA TRAIL (A CONTEMPORARY DRAWING) ican desert." Amidst great suffering from lack of water, the Humboldt was followed until it sank in ^ The following is the first stanza of a popular song of the day . I soon shall be in 'Frisco, And then 1 11 look all "round, And when I see the gold lumps there I'll pick 'em off the ground. I'll scrape the mountains clean, my boys, I'll drain the rivers dry, A pocket full of rocks bring home- So, brothers, dont you cry. Parkman's "Oregon Trail" is a classic on the experiences of the overland journey. 344 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE the sands about its alkali lake, and then the Truckee was reached to be followed up to its head. Thence the way divided to the many gold districts. vSome travelers passed down the Feather river, others the Yuba, and still others the American. The southern or Santa Fe trail led from Fort Smith THE TRAILS TO CALIFORNIA (now Arkansas) along the Canadian or Red river to the Pecos and thence to Sante Fe. If the gold-seeker followed Kearny's or Cooke's route to southern Cali- fornia he would still be far from his goal. Therefore many preferred to turn north across the Grand and Green rivers and to pass the Wasatch mountains to GOLD, THE NEW FACTOR IN AMERICAN EXPANSION 345 the old Oregon trail. A few went south of the Great Salt Lake and up througli the ''desert" to the Humboldt. Many caravans started upon the fearful journey inadequately equipped, and both government and private relief expeditions were necessary. "Outfits " varied from those carried by organized companies backed by inv^ested capital to individuals who trundled their equipment across the continent in a wheel- barrow. Any one could borrow money on his future prospects. Stories came back to inflame still more the eastern minds ; stories of ten men in ten days taking out one and one-half million dollars' worth of gold ; of white men employing Indians to gather up nuggets as nuts were gathered in the states ; of profits averaging one dollar per minute ; of a spade selling for one thousand dollars. Few letters were written from the diggings since the material and the time lost it was estimated would make a letter cost over one hundred dollars. Those which were written told of tlie payment of one dollar per garment for washing ; of men who carried a patent rubber hammock which they had bought to be used also as a life pre- server, pillow, mattress, repository for papers, and a raft over streams. They said that Sutter had let a store room in his fort for three thousand dollars a month ; that a doctor paid a teamster one hundred dollars for taking a gold washer into the diggings and charged him the same sum for writing a prescription when they reached there. They also described the excitement when a new field was discovered ; how men threw themselves upon the earth and extended 340 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE their arms and legs to make as large a claim as pos- sible. So wild grew expectations fed by these stories that some companies bought dredges with which to scoop up the metal. Wheelbarrows which cost five dollars in New York were taken around by sea at a cost of $18.90. No such exodus had taken place within recorded history. Before the end of the year 1848 there were six thousand men in the gold fields and they had sent out six million dollars' worth of gold dust. By the end of 1849 over thirty-five thousand had arrived by sea and forty-two thousand by land. Of these fully three-fourths came from the United States. In San Francisco gold-dust was accepted as legal tender at the rate of sixteen dollars an ounce. That city o-rew in a few months from two thousand to sixteen thousand. In her harbor lay four hundred ships deserted by the sailors who had gone to the gold diggings. The English newspapers ridiculed the stampede from that country, but could not stoj) it. One of their parodies runs : Gold is got in pan and pot, Soup tureen and ladle, Basket, bird-cage and what-not Even in a cradle! But we hope this golden move Really is all true, sirs. Else will Yankee Doodle prove A Yankee Doodle doo, sirs. Every one who digs and delves, All whose arms are brawny, Buy a pick and help yourselves Off to CaHforny. GOLD, THE NEW FACTOR IN AMERICAN EXPANSION 347 It was but natural that all this influx would bring a certain lawless element, although the most vicious class was prevented from migrating because of lack of capital. The United States had subsidized the Pacific Mail Steamship Company to ply between New York and San Francisco by transfer across the Isthmus of Panama, yet communication was irregular and infre- quent. Many who had gone on the first impulse now TRYING TO GET AWAY FROM CALIFORNIA (FROM A CARTOON OF 18-49) sought means of return. Fabulous prices were off'ered for a return passage by those who had accumulated wealth. Cartoons exaggerated this condition of affairs, but it was sufficiently bad. In Sacramento the hospitals were crowded. Eggs sold at six dollars a dozen, milk at one dollar a quart and dried peaches at fifty-five cents a pound. Many who had come out singing "0 California, that's the land for me," now began to sing "Oh, carry me back to old Virginia." 348 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE Tlie immigrants for tlie larger part ^vere young men/ and youth and hope soon told in overcoming this temporary depression and in building up a pros- perous and thriving state from such varied materials. The Argonauts, or Forty-niners as they styled them- selves, are proud to show that seven of the first ten governors, and all but two of the United States sena- tors prior to 1897, were among the early gold seekers. The Spanish element was thus overcome in the f,^ M. SAN DIEfiO, OLDEST MISSION IN CALIFORNIA twinkling of an eye by this inflow of Americans, and the picturesque and often ruined missions form almost the only visible evidence that the procrastinating Castilian was once master of this enterprising coun- ^ The constituency of the convention which framed the first con- stitution for California (1850) indicates the states from which the population was most largely drawn. From New York came eleven ; Pennsylvania and New Jersey, two; New England, six; Ohio, three; Maryland, five; Virginia and Kentucky, three each; Missouri, Florida, and Tennessee, one each. Seven were born in California, and five were foreign born. There were fourteen lawyers, eleven farmers, eight mercliants, and fifteen scattering. Only four mem- bers were over fifty years of age. GOLD, THE NEW FACTOR IN AMERICAN EXPANSION 349 try. Yet it was still a distant and isolated part of the United States. A railway was needed across the continent to bind the sections together. That truly was a chimerical idea and not thought likely to be realized within generations. But a railroad across the Isthmus was practical. Indeed capitalists interested in the transportation lines of the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans, had formed a company for that purpose and sent out engineers in January, 1849. The enterprise was begun in the swamps during the rainy season, and hindered by the dense vegetation and by the malaria arising from the low ground. The white men spent their days wading in the s.wamps and their nights tossino- in the hulk of an old vessel which had been anchored in the bay on the Gulf side for a dwelling. They were tortured by the mos- quitoes and sand flies and attacked by fever. Irish laborers were imported but died of swamp fever ; one'thousand Chinamen were brought out but scores committed suicide ; coolies from India were tried without avail ; and the shiftless natives of the adjacent Indies furnished the only available laborers. ox THE ISTHMUS ROUTK (FROM AN OLD C'l'T) 350 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE In three years, twelve miles of the road were usable and in two years more the remaining thirty-six were comj)leted. It was too late to profit by the first rush for the gold fields yet in seven years the railroad had cleared five million dollars, wdiile the total cost of con- struction had not exceeded eiglit million. In the first twelve years of its business, before a transconti- nental railway was built, it carried across the isthmus seven hundred and fifty millions of dollars' worth of gold and three hundred thousand bags of mail, with- out a single loss. In the meantime the possibility of a transcontinental railway had been brouglit much nearer by the colonization of the prairies of Kansas and Nebraska. CHAPTER XXIX THE STRUGGLE FOR KANSAS AND NEBRASKA As section after section of the land beyond the Missouri came under the control of the United States by Indian treaty, the line of western forts was pushed forward to protect the advancing civilization. In 1832, a temporary cantonment of troops on the Mis- souri river w^as named Fort Leavenworth in honor of the colonel of the regiment, and a iDermanent post established. With the soldiers and often in advance of them went the missionary to the Indian. In 1834, at a Baptist missionary farm on Ottavra creek, a printing press was set up, probably the first in the present state of Kansas. Government maps were issued for the direction of immigrants. At the head of Grand Island in the Nebraska river. Fort Kearny was located, and far up on the Platte troops could be found at Fort Laramie. The Catholic Osage Mission School was opened. Town sites were planned and the land divided into imaginary farms. Restless pioneers came from Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, and Missouri to take up the new lands as rapidly as treaties could be made with the Indians. Most of these settlers came up the Missouri river to the Kansas (at first spelled Kanzas) near which was Inde- pendence, the starting point for the Sante Fe trail. They settled along the Kansas and Osage rivers. Others went farther up the Missouri to the mouth 351 352 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE of the Platte to found Omaha city, Plattsmouth, and Nebraska city. No statesman could contemplate a frame of govern- ment for these people without seeing that the disturb- ing question of slavery or no slavery must arise. It was true that the region lay north of the Missouri compromise line and was therefore free ; but part of it lay due west of Missouri and many of the immi- grants had crossed over from that state with their PROGRKSS OF THE DIVIDINQ LIXE BETWEEX SLAVERY AND FREEDOM slaves and could not easily be dispossessed. Indeed no one who had studied the due westward movement of American expansion dared hope that slave Missouri would be allowed to project into free territory without causing trouble eventually. The compromise could not endure. Many sincere people felt that these slave owners should not be deprived of their property because of this compromise framed by Congress thirty years THE STRUGGLE FOR KANSAS AND NEBRASKA 353 before and in which the present generation had pos- sessed no voice. It was felt to be contrary to the American principle of home rule. Lewis Cass, of Michigan, had suggested this thought in 1847 when tlie question of slavery in the territory gained in the Mexican war arose. Senator Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois has the credit of applying this principle of "home or squatter sovereignty" in a bill for the organization of the territories of Kansas and Nebraska. All laws of the United States were to apply to these territories except the Missouri compromise, "which, being inconsistent with the principle of non-interven- tion by Congress with slavery in the states and terri- tories," was to be inoperative and void; "it being the true intent and meaning of this act not to legis- late slavery into any territory or state, nor to exclude it therefrom, but to leave the people thereof perfectly free to form and regulate their domestic institutions in their own way. ' ' The passage of this bill gave great satisfaction to the southern people, especially in the border states. So aggressive had the abolition element become that the slaveholders constantly feared some legislation which would drive slavery out of the border states, and so by gradual encroachment wipe out the whole. Gaining Kansas and Nebraska for slavery was a kind of flank movement on the enemy. It placed slavery in the aggressive instead of the defensive attitude it liad so long been compelled to take. On the other hand, a feeling of outraged justice and breach of faith took possession of almost the entire north. The pledge of thirty years had been broken. 354 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE A northern man had betrayed them. His name was Stephen Arnold Doughas, but the press greeted him as Benedict Arnold Douglas. He was commanded to show the thirty i3ieces of silver which he had received for betraying his master — the people. The people of his native state — Vermont — wept for the disgrace brought upon them. He said he could have traveled from Washington to Chicago after Congress adjourned by the light of himself burned in efhgy. This indignation was felt especially in New Eng- land — the home of anti-slavery and Abolition. Five thousand people crowded Faneuil Hall on a stormy night to protest. A means must be found to frustrate what to them seemed an invasion of free territory. A precedent was easily found in the case of Illinois. When the steady migration from Kentucky and other southern states threatened to make Illinois a strong pro-slavery state, a number of projects were discussed to contribute a counter-acting free-soil element not ouly to the northern portion where the lines of move- ment would naturally bring it, l)ut to the central and southern portions as well. The Rev. George W. Gale, who had conducted fron- tier missionary work in Oneida county, New York, formed a stock company which purchased a tract of public land between the Mississippi and Illinois rivers and planned the toAvn of Galesburg. The prime pur- pose was the education of young men for the border mhiistry and to this end a college was proposed, to which was given the Presbyterian name of "Knox." In 1836, one party started in a canal-boat, the Argo, by the Erie Canal to Buffalo, thence to be towed to THE STRUGGLE FOR KANSAS AND NEBRASKA 355 Cleveland. In a violent storm, the canal-boat was abandoned, but eventually saved although the house- hold goods which it carried were seriously damaged. From Cleveland to Portsmouth, Ohio, the boat was taken on the Ohio canal ; thence by the Ohio river and Mississippi to St. Louis, and by the Illinois to the point nearest the future home. Another party came i1 AN OLD KNOX COLLEG115 BUILDING by heavy wagons directly across the country from New York to Illinois. Their temporary settlement was very appropriately named Log City. Gradually the town site of Gales- burg became occupied, and a church was erected, together with buildings for the college. On the road there had been some threats about these Abolitionist invaders, but they were not seriously molested. 356 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE Their young men engaged actively in the "under- ground railway," by which fugitive slaves were assisted toward Canada. The sentiment of their sur- roundings was decidedly against them and in 1854, their church withdrew from the Presbytery on the ground "that we are unwilling to remain in ecclesias- tical connection with slaveholders. ' ' Similar free settlements were made by the Quakers at Mount Pleasant, Iowa, and elsewhere. Obviously similar colonization of free people in the threatened territories of Kansas and Nebraska was the readiest weapon. Within six weeks after Congress had re- pealed the Missouri Compromise the Massachusetts Emigrant Aid company was incorporated with a nom- inal capital of five million dollars ' ' for the purpose of assisting emigrants to settle in the west." Similar associations or "leagues" sprang up in Connecticut and New York. Senator Seward, although with little faith in the project of w^inning by superior numbers, said: "Come on, then, gentlemen of the slave states, since there is no escaping your challenge, I accept it in belialf of freedom. We will engage in competition for tlie virgin soil of Kansas and God give the victory to the side that is stronger in num- bers, as it is in right." It w^as to be a race for a rich pi'ize. The territories extended from the Missouri to the Rocky mountains, a breadth greater than from the New England coast to central Ohio. In l^isgitude they reached from near the southern boundary of Missouri to the Canadian boundary line — a space measured on the Atlantic coast from the lower part of Virginia to the east of THE STRUGGLE FOR KANSAS AND NEBRASKA 357 the farther boundary of Maine. They embraced the present states of Kansas, Nebraska, and most of the Dakotas, Colorado, Wyoming, and Montana, The southern interests were not slow to counteract the aid societies of the north. The Atchison Town Company was formed in Missouri, and the Platte County Association organized in tlie territory. It was said that semi-secret organizations of Blue Lodges, Sons of the South, Friends' Societies, etc. , also existed among them. They held meetings denounc- ing this attempt of northern capital to force migration and so thwart a natural decision under the law. There was no little bluster among these borderers and their strong language was accepted as a challenge by the New Englanders. In June, 1854, the first of the Emigrant Aid societies, numbering only thirty, left Boston and arrived without accident at a point on the Kansas river and purchased the site of Wakarusa. The com- ing of one these "Thayer & Co." outfits Mvas an overt act and " Yankee town" was a mark for deri- sion. A second party arrived in September, pole and thatch dwellings were erected, the first sermon preached, and the town named Lawrence, in honor of one of the patrons of the society. During the first year it received 673 immigrants from New England. By late autumn each party had a printing press whose product further inflamed the hostile feeling. The ^ Eli Thayer, a schoolmaster of Worcester, Massachusetts, was in the Legislature of that state when the plan of squatter sovereignty was announced. He suggested and helped organize bodies of emi- grants who should hasten to Kansas and anticipate the coming of the southerners. 358 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE governor appointed by the president arrived and took up his residence at Fort Leavenworth, where the sentiment was pro-slavery, but he was soon removed because he was in sympatliy with the other side. Day by day the gatliering of colonists for this strange mission continued unabated. Three hundred went out in one body from Boston. Edward Everett Hale wrote " Directions to Emigrants;" the Kansas League of Cincinnati published "A Journey through Kansas ; '' printing presses were forwarded to the ter- ritory. Whittier wrote "The Kansas Emigrant's Song," and Bryant contributed "The Prairies." Lucy Larcom won a prize offered by the Emigrant Aid Society, with her "Call to Kansas." Thomas Wentworth Higginson made a horseback journey with an emigrant Avagon train to Kansas and contributed his observations to the columns of Horace Greeley's Tribune where they were read by thousands. The largest section of it (the wagon train) is a party of some fifty Massachusetts and Maine men. . . . Some of them own tlieir own wagons and bring pecuniary means with them ; others have only brave hearts and strong bodies ; and they complain of nothing but the long delay, as they left July 24. Besides these, there are smaller parties from Vermont, Ohio, Illinois, and Iowa, who brought much valuable property. . . . Our train included about one hundred and forty men and some twenty women and children. There were twenty-eight wagons — all but eight being horse-teams. Our nightly tents made quite a little colony and presented a busy scene. While some watered and fed the stock, others brought wood for the fires; others prejmred the te-nts and wagons for sleeping; others reloaded pistols or rifles and the leaders arranged the nightly watch or planned the affairs of the morrow. Meanwhile, the cooks fried pork, made coffee, and baked bread, and a gaping crowd, wrapped in blankets, sat around the fire. Women brought their babes, and took the best places they could find, and one worthy saddler brought out his board and leather THE STRUGGLE FOR KANSAS AND NEBRASKA 359 every night and made belts and holsters for the men. We slept soundly in spite of the cold and of the scarcity of wood, and each kept watch for an hour, striding in thick boots through the grass, heavy with frost. The one thing that discouraged our party, however, was to meet other parties, day after day, returning. Men on horseback and on foot, with wagons and without, came along in ominous numbers. . . ' Will you give up Kansas ? ' I asked. ' Never ! ' was tlie reply from bronzed and bearded lips, stern and terrible as the weapons that hung to the saddle bow. ' We are scattered, starved, hunted, half-naked, but we are not conquered yet.' The southerners, chiefly from Missouri, had no such agencies and could resort only to bullying steam- boat captains and ferry-men who carried the Yankees. Being first on the ground, they set up extensive claims, hoping to squeeze out the northern newcomers. They saw the first elections approaching when numbers would be the test. They thought these New Englanders had come into the territory temporarily to gain con- trol. "A set of demagogues and fanatics a thousand miles off" were using such means. " You reside in one day's journey of the territory," said General Atchison to them, " and when your peace, your quiet, and your property depend upon your action, you can, without an exertion, send five hundred of your young men who will vote in favor of your institutions. Should each county in the state of Missouri only do its duty, the question will be decided quietly and peacefully at the ballot box."^ The attempt to carry this advice into execution was resisted by the Free-State people who called the others "Border Ruffians," and claimed illegal elections. Governor followed governor in a vain attempt to ^ Reported in the Platte Argus of Nov. 6, 1854. 360 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE control these battles of the ballot. Rival capitals were set up and various governments claimed recog- nition. Troops were used in dispersing some of these legislative assemblies. Altogether there were at dif- ferent times seven capitol buildings. From the begin- ning there had been violence. The people of Lawrence prevented by vote any resident of another state taking DISPERSING A KANSAS CONSTIXrTKJNAL CUXVKNTION any part in their government. In turn they were driven out of Leavenworth. Mobbing grew common ; forts were constructed. Lecompton was laid out as a pro-slavery town and became the headquarters of that faction. Old John BroAvn, an Abolitionist agi- tator from New York, arrived at Lawrence with his *This and the next cut are from "Leslie's Weekly." 1857. THE STRUGGLE FOR KANSAS AND NEBRASKA 361 four sons to take part in the war. He believed in the sliedding of blood as the only remission for sin. His victims, often helpless, soon made him disclaimed by the people he was striving to aid.^ Every event in Kansas was reflected in the east. The killing of a Lawrence man by an Indian agent brought out " The Burial of Barber " from Whittier. Rabid Abolitionists advocated the arming of ever}^ man bound for Kansas. "Sharpe's rifles" was the watch-word. When over $250,000 was raised in the northern cities as a "relief " fund to compensate the settlers for the crops they had been unable to plant and harvest, the southerners claimed the money was to be expended for arms. The action of the "free- state " governor of Kansas in refusing $20,000 voted as relief by the state of Virginia strengthened this belief. The "relief" money from South Carolina and Alabama was spent in arming and sending for- ward troops to aid their brethren struggling to save their pro^^erty. The searching of vessels for arms and people bound up the Missouri was not uncommon. When this route was entirely closed to the Aid Society emigrants, a new one was opened through Mt. Pleasant, Iowa. The Lecompton force attacked Lawrence, destroyed the printing presses, and burned the hotel. They also burned Osawatomie where Brown had collected a force. The Free-State party retaliated on the town of Franklin. For five years this war raged in " bleeding Kansas." It was the final sectional struggle for political power ' Many northern people even among the Abolitionists condemned Brown's action. See Whittier's "Brown of Ossawatomie. " 362 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE resulting from the possession of territory in the western expansion. The north won, as she always did, through geographical and commercial advantages. Her urban population gave her great advantage in recruiting bodies of emigrants, her superior resources furnished the means to send them, and her KANrtAS— A NURTIIERN VIKW OF A I'KO-SLAVKKY COXVKNTl better facilities for transportation made the going easier and more attractive. Above all, her people, although acting from interested motives of gaining territory, were wrought up almost to a frenzy by the inspiration of a "cause," whilst tlie southern people were contending for their property and their rights. THE STRUGGLE FOR KANSAS AND NEBRASKA 363 Northern numbers told in the end, although the oppo- sition was strong enough in Congress to keep the state with an anti-slavery constitution out of tlie Union until the southern members withdrew in secession. Nebraska territory lying north of Kansas and re- moved from the slavery interests suffered no such struggle for possession as characterized that section. Nebraska as a territory was many times larger than it is as a state. Yet its lack of accessibility, as well as of Emigrant Aid societies, retarded its settlement in comparison with Kansas. It was also hindered by the sudden pox^ularity of its neighbor on the east. Iowa was made about 1854, although the opening of the ' ' New Purchase ' ' from the Sac and Fox Indians below Oskaloosa in 1843 had attracted a suffi- cient number of settlers to warrant the admission of the state three years later. But the California fever turned the public attention from agriculture, and Iowa did not receive her share of population until the reaction came. By 1854 naen had become sane again and were ready to listen to the stories of the richness of those prairies over which the Iowa Indians had roamed a few years before, and where chief " HaAvk- ej^e " had gained renown. Many painted out the words "Pikes Peak or bust" from their canvas wagon covers and substituted "Iowa." In one month, according to the editor of a Peoria, Illinois, newspaper, 1,473 emigrant Avagons passed through that city bound for loAva. Chicago papers described the trains of cars draAvn by two locomotives which came from the east carrying as many as twelve 364 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE thousand migrants in one week en route to their new homes in "the hawkeye state." Two steamers brought to St. Louis at one time over six hundred future lowans. Three hundred houses were erected in Davenport in one season. Projected lines of rail- road traversed tlie state in all directions, and barbe- cues were given to help "boom" tliem. In 1856 the United States granted public lands for four railroads across the state from east to w^est. Cities were laid out which are now lost even from the memory of man. But soon the covered wagons which crossed the Mis- sissippi ferries and passed through the Iowa settle- ments bore on their covers the new w^ord "Nebraska." So the fickle raidtitude has swept forward, seeking better things, and always willing to give the latest favorite a hearing. Horace Greeley, making a tour of the west about this time, has given a graphic illustration of the tran- sition on the frontier from comfort to hardship : I believe I have now descended the ladder of artificial life nearly to its lowest round. . . . For the present the progress I have made during the last fortnight towards the primitive sim- plicity of human existence maj'- be rouglih' noted thus: May 12th, Chicago. — Chocolate and morning papers last seen on the breakfast table. 23d, Leavenworth. — Room -bells and baths make their last appearance. 24th, Topeka. — Beefsteak and washbowls (othe-r than tin) last visible. Barber ditto. 26th, Manhattan. — Potatoes and eggs last recognized among the blessings that " brighten as they take their flight." 27th, Junction City. — Last visitation of a boot-black, with dis- solving views of a broad bedroom. Chairs bid us good-bye. 28th, Pipe Creek. — Benches for seats at meals have disappeared, giving place to bags and boxes. We (two passengers of a scrib- THE STRUGGLE FOR KANSAS AND NEBRASKA 365 bling turn) write our letters in the Express wagon that has borne us by day, and must supply us lodgings for the night. — Wilder's Annals of Kansas, p. 203. The race for Kansas and Nebraska had populated the plains with a rapidity second only to that of Cali- fornia. Improvements advanced with civilization. The magnetic telegraph line reached Leavenworth in 1858, coming by Jefferson and Kansas City. Two years later the first railroad in Kansas was built from Elwood to Marysville, and the old locomotive * 'Albany," which had done pioneer service succes- sively on new roads from the Atlantic to the Missouri, drew a great concourse of people to a proper celebra- tion. Soon the project of a railway from tlie Mis- souri to the Pacific, long agitated, began to assume form. CHAPTER XXX A TRANSCONTINENTAL RAILROAD It was one of the most remarkable triumphs of the railway in America that it suggested even the possi- bility of spanning the continent. So early as 1834 newspapers were proposing a railway from New York city to the mouth of the Columbia, with an estimated length of three thousand miles, a cost of thirty mil- lion dollars, and a journey to be made in twelve and one-half days. Thus "time and space would be annihilated ! ' ' In 1849 Asa Whitney, a New York merchant, returned from China impressed with the necessity of securing the trade of that country by a transconti- nental railway. He saw a means to l)uild it in tlie vast wealth of the public lands through which the road would pass. He therefore petitioned Congress for a strip of land thirty miles wide on each side of the proposed railway from Lake Michigan to the Pacific. This space represented a day's wagon journey, and was therefore the territory which the road would directly benefit. The income from the sales of the land would build the road. He braved all ridicule, held public meetings in various cities, secured favorable resolutions from the legislatures of several states, but made little headway in Congress. It was a period of great national prosperity. The public debt was being reduced rapidly, the accession of 366 A TRANSCONTINENTAL RAILROAD 367 California and the discovery of gold furnished new arguments for Whitney's scheme, but sectional inter- ests prevented a consummation. Five routes had been surveyed under the direction of the War Department. The northernmost lay between the forty-seventh and forty-ninth parallels of north latitude, from St. Paul to Vancouver ; the next along the forty-first parallel from Council Bluffs by the Black Hills, Fort Badger, and the Great Salt Lake to San Francisco ; the third along the thirty-eighth parallel from the mouth of the Kansas river to the Sevier river in the Great Basin, where the route was abandoned ; the fourth followed the thirty-fifth parallel, but lay in a desert country for the larger part and was not considered possible ; the southernmost lay near the thirt3^-second parallel along the Red river, the Rio Grande, and the Gila to soutliern California, and thence up to San Francisco. Each route found its advocates in the people living near its eastern terminus. When the northern route seemed about to be chosen. Senator Benton of Mis- souri w^orked against it and fathei'ed a route which should bei^in in his state. Senator Houston of Texas tried to have substituted a route from Galveston along the Red river to southern California. A great con- vention met in Chicago to assist the northern route, but a counter-convention was called in St. Louis and another in Memphis. Not sectional prejudices alone worked against the project during the decade from 1850 to 1860. Many favored a canal instead of a railroad, whether it were dug across the Panama, Nicaragua, or Tehuantepec isthmus. Others opposed any great expenditure of 368 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE money in behalf of a California railway because of the supposed barrenness of the country to be crossed in reaching it. A prominent writer said : ^ We may as well admit that Kansas and Nebraska, with the exception of a small strip of land upon the eastern borders, are per- fect deserts, with a soil whose constituents are of such a nature as forever to unfit them for the purposes of agriculture. . . . We may also admit that Washington territory and Oregon and Utah and New Mexico are, with the exception of a few limited areas, composed of mountain chains and unfruitful plains. Whitney spent a fortune in the agitation of the sub- ject, but to no immediate avail. *^ Nothing was done until the withdrawal of the representatives of one section of the United States in 1861 left the other free to act on this as on other questions. During the progress of the Civil War there were frequent rumors that the people of the isolated Pacific slope, who had for ten years in vain demanded overland communication, intended erecting an independent republic. This rumor, together with the invasion of New Mexico by a Confederate force, caused the con- tinuing Congress in 1862 to give six per cent gold bonds amounting to $55,092,074 as a subsidy to two railroad companies known as the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific. The Central Pacific organization was due to the business imagination of a San Francisco hardware merchant, Collis P. Huntington, who was one day watching a huge freight ^vagon drawn by twenty mules departing for the Comstock silver mines in ^In the Noj'fh American Revietv, vol. CLXX., page 235. •^ It was .said that Whitney supported himself in his old age in the city of Washington b\^ selling milk. A TRANSCONTINENTAL RAILROAD 369 Nevada. Conceiving the idea of a railway to the mines, ho associated with himself Leland Stanford, a wholesale grocer, Charles Crocker, a merchant, and his own partner, Mark Hopkins. This "big four" began the construction of a road over the Sierra Nevada mountains by the Dutch Flat route, but such a chimerical project was ridiculed as the " Dutch Flat swindle." The Union Pacific was organized largely in New York for building a road westwardly from Omaha. In addition to lending money to these two companies, the government allowed them to borrow as much more, to issue stock for twelve hundred million dollars, and in addition presented to them an average of 12,800 acres of public land for every mile of road constructed. The Union Pacific company began to build west- wardly from the Missouri river, to which point the Hannibal and St. Joseph road had been extended in 1859. The Central Pacific began to build eastwardly from Sacramento, w^here connection was already made with San Francisco. Under guard of United States troops the lines advanced, occasionally harassed by Indians, and gathering a vicious crowd of gamblers and robbers at the temporary termini, where murder and lynching were only too frequent. By special action of Congress the fixed meeting place for the two lines was abolished and a race began for a stake averaging $32,000 per mile. More than ten thousand laborers w^ere employed, four thousand being imported from China, and the con- struction of the rapidly approaching lines went on, 370 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE sometimes at the rate of eight miles a day/ The Cen- tral Pacific had the more difficult portion to build, and received the larger bonus, amounting to $48,000 per mile through the Sierra Nevadas. Fourteen tunnels were planned, but without awaiting their completio-n, JOIXIX(i THE TWO PACIFIC KAILKliAD.S building material and locomotives were dragged over the mountains by mules, and new sections begun on the other side. At last, after some difficulty about the lines overlapping, a junction was formed near the ^ The chorus of a popular song among the men working upon the railroad ran as follows: Then drill, my paddies, drill, Drill, my heroes, drill. Drill airdav, no sugar in the tay, Workin' on the U. F. railway. A TRANSCONTINENTAL RAILROAD 371 Mormon city of Ogden, the only town originally on the road. State and national dignitaries witnessed the driving of the last spike at Promontory Point, the blows being recorded by telegraph in many cities and struck upon the city hall bell in San Francisco.^ Celebrations followed in that city and in Omaha, Chicago, Philadelphia, and New York. The total length of the road from Omaha to San Francisco was 1,917 miles and it had been built in seven years, just one-half the time estimated and allowed. Although this was but the first of the many transcontinental railroads, it meant that geographic union was now^ to be supplemented by a union of business and of com- mon interests. The wares of the magnetic telegraph running along the railroad would mean the bringing of distant parts together. Hereafter there -was to be no sectional east and west. The engagement of the national government with private corporations to construct the road marked the end of new "internal improvements" built directly by the government, and the beginning of private capital sufficiently accumulated to engage in vast enterprises, if aided by the government. Many people had grown disgusted with the old method because it bred a spirit of jobbery and "log-rolling" wdiich saw in every public undertaking the chance for personal gain. They hailed w4th delight the advent of private com- panies organized for public enterprises, but were soon forced to realize that public plunder is a danger from which the republic is never free. The rich prize held ^ See Bret Harte's "What the Engines Said," written on the com- pletion of the transcontinental railway. 372 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE out by the government in its emergency brought a swarm of vultures. Patriots for revenue only possess a keen sense of smell. The Credit Mobilier/ first organized by some of the officers of the Union Pacific, was given contract after contract for buildincr sections of the road. It was simply part of the company letting contracts to itself under another name and at the price set by the latter. On an expenditure of less than ten million dollars this gigantic fraud realized probably twenty- five million dollars from the public. Many members of Congress were besmirched even beyond the redeem- ing power of the whitewash which was liberally applied. Smaller steals like Wendell's were over- shadowed by the Credit Mobilier. No doubt the abuses on the Central Pacific were as flagrant, although never exposed so clearly. The later " Avrecking" of the roads in the interest of rival cor- porations was a fitting climax to this experiment of government engaging even to a limited extent in private enterprises. Such experience, humiliating as it is, simply shows that national character is not born perfect even in a new people ; but that, notwithstanding the remark- able growth and exceptionable environment of the American people, they must encounter the evils with which men have been perplexed heretofore. A higher type of civic conscience must come by the slow process of evolution. Eternal vigilance is the price of public honesty. It is often said that the difficulties of a transcontinental railroad would have forever discour- ^ Named from a speculating company organized in France in 1852. A TRANSCONTINENTAL RAILROAD 373 aged capitalists but for these opportunities of "spoils." Yet no benefit conferred can ever atone for the debauchment of the government/ The peopling of the west was aided not only by the railroad but by the contemporary Homestead Act. Under the first system of land sales, the United States by 1827 had disposed of only nineteen million acres of the two hundred and sixty-one million it had owned. At that rate five centuries would be required to get it all sold and in cultivation. Thirty million dollars had been received thus far. Speculation brought the sales up to twenty-four million dollars in 1836, but in 1843 they had fallen to a little over half a million. In order to protect settlers who had gone into unsurveyed lands and made homes, the Preemption Act in 1841 assured each adult resident of his one hundred and sixty acres, and allowed him from twelve to thirty- three months in v/hich to pay for it. Such protection had become necessary in the exten- sive grabbing of the j)ublic lands, which was inau- gurated most innocently in 1835. Congress first allowed some canal lands to be transferred to a rail- road, and then gave a strip thirty feet wide on either side 'of a proposed road through the public lands. The next year it " aided " another road by blocks of not more than five acres of land on the right of way, and in 1850 gave to the rejuvenated Illinois Central railroad alternate sections of land on either side of the ^ The true merits of the many controversies involved in build- ing and operating these roads can be gained only by a study of the numerous Congressional reports and the various decisions of the courts. Due allowance must always be made for political bias in the conflicting opinions expressed. 374 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE road for six sections in width. Between 1850 and 1870 over one hundred and fifty million acres of land were granted to aid the building of railroads.^ So enormous grew these and kindred draughts on the public domain that one political party declared "the public lands belong to the people and should not be sold to individuals, nor granted to corporations, but should be held as a sacred trust for the benefit of the people and should be granted in limited quan- tities, free of cost, to landless settlers." Such a "homestead law" had a precedent in the "Florida Donation Act" of 1842, which granted a Cjuarter sec- tion in that territory to each actual settler. Such acts had been passed for the territories of Oregon, Washington, and New Mexico. The project of offering similar advantages anywhere in the public lands was agitated from 1850 to 1860, but the conflicting views upon the power of the union prevented action until 1862. Tlie act of that year made a uniform rate of $1.25 per acre, in quantities from sixty to one hundred and sixty acres, to adults who actually settle upon and improve the land. Upwards of a hundred million acres have been purchased and thousands of homes erected under this act. It prevents foreign landlordism, insures the continuance of rural democ- racy, and under the easy system of transfer of land adapts itself to the present needs of the agrarian. 1 The Union and Central Pacific, as has been said, were ^iven twenty-five million acres; the Northern Pacific forty-seven miUions; the Southern Pacific the same; the Atlantic and Pacific forty-two millions, and so on. It should be said that parts of these grants are yet to be located which brings the amount of public land actually given to railroads and canals down to one hundred and six million acres. See Donaldson's "Public Domain. '" A TRANSCONTINENTAL RAILROAD 375 The United States has failed to realize the hope entertained by Hamilton that the public lands would prove a source of revenue to the government. The opposite of a direct return has been the result/ This\ vast heritage has frequently tempted legislation for the sake of vested interests. It has made most unequal the contest between corporate powers and the people. It has enriched a few. But it has also evoked certain leg- islation for the people. It has given a home to many a poor man who could never have earned it in any other way. It has converted many a European tenant into an American landlord. It has contributed largely to the well-being of the masses so especially characteristic of this new world. It has produced a resident landed democracy inclined, it is true, to indulge in political vagaries and visions, but thoroughly honest and virile, and giving assurance of the perpetuity of popular^ government. -^ MONT^ME.VT TO THE THE UXTOX PACIFIC 1 Before 1880 the United States had spent on the public lands $121,000,000 more than had been realized from their sales. Much of this was spent on Indian treaties. In 1900 there were 1,893,476, 100 acres yet unsold in the United States proper, but much of it moun- tainous and waste land. CHAPTER XXXI SEEKING UTOPIA IN AMERICA Plato put ill words tlie universal longing of man for a better state than he has known ; for a brother- hood of kindly cooperation to replace a competitive strife but little above the beasts which rend and devour each other. The teachings of Christ tend to the same end, and the Christian monks who lived in poverty and in communities tried to exemplify His theories. Sir Thomas More's "Utopia," and the numerous similar writings since, imagine such cooperation and harmony on an extended scale. The discovery of a new world created many hopes that these dreams might at last be realized on soil untainted by the greed and tyranny of past civiliza- tion. Columbus is pictured as a "dreamer," but Ponce de Leon, Oglethorpe, Pastorius, the Puritan, the Quaker, and countless others sailed in hopes of realizing a dream. Poets sang of a Utoj^ia in a land untrammeled by the conventionalities of old-world life. The wilds of the Susquehanna presented charms surpassing those of England's fairest lake region.^ Cooperation from necessity, such as marked the first Virginia colony, whose members were controlled ^The poets, Coleridge and Southey, planned a " Pantisocracy" on the banks of tlie Susquehanna, but nothing came of it. Cowley also longed to retire with liis books to a cottage in America. Bishop Berkeley came to Rhode Island witli great hopes of establishing a missionary college in the Bermudas. 376 SEEKING UTOPIA IN AMERICA 377 by the London company, and such features of com- munism as the huid-holding of the Pilgrims at Ply- mouth, are but imperfect forms of an ideal communal life as realized later under the enthusiasm of religious zeal. The desire to separate from the world in order -^ to practice the tenets of some religious faith caused men to forsake comforts and to endure privations. It laid the foundation of many American Utopias. Germany, in the various opinions growing out of the Reformation, contributed most of these religious sects and communities.^ John Kelpius and forty other members of the German sect known as Pietists ' came to America in 1694 and established a brotherhood on the banks of the Wissahickon near Philadelphia. They called themselves "The Society of the Woman of the Wilderness." They lived the ascetic life of hermits, and attracted much attention by their peculiar dress and habits. The community lasted about ten years. Peter Sluyter's temporary colony of Labadists,' near the head of Chesapeake Bay, was another of these 1 These countless sects were multiplied within themselves. For instance, among the Mennonites in America one may find the true Mennonites, Bruederhoef, General Conference, Amish, Old Amish, Apostolic Reformed, Church of God in Christ, Old (Wisler), Bunders Conference, Defenceless, and Brethren m Christ. 2 Phil ipp Jakob Spener, '^The Father of Pietism," describes the doctrine as the more practical forms of piety, such as charity, toleration, better preaching, and more activity on the part of the laity. The movement was intended to quicken Lutheranism, but failed of much influence because of its extravagant forms. It has held very sliglitly in America. , ., -^ ^ ^t v 3 Jean de Labadie, a French Jesuit, forsook the Roman Catholic for the Reformed Church in 1650, and formed a sect of Christian communists like the primitive church. He believed in the direct guidance of the Holy Spirit, the observance of every day as a sab- bath and the unregeneracy of children born outside of the faith. The sect lived about a century, but had few followers m America. 378 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE German sectarian associations transplanted to Amer- ican soil. Among the German Diinkers who came to America was Johann Conrad Beissel (Beizel). He adopted the seventh day as the true Sabbath, and in 1728 founded a community of believers. A few years later he estab- lished at Ephrata, Pennsylvania, a monastic order including both sexes, the members pledging tliem- selves to celibacy, a common dress, and lives of poverty. The order was marked by many whimsic- alities and passed away soon after the death of Beis- sel in 1768. He has always had a few believers in his doctrine, but they have not attempted another community. The hopes with whicli the new world was invested have made possible a number of small religious com- munities, such as the one inaugurated by Jemima Wilkinson at Jerusalem, in south central New York, in 1789. She was a Rhode Island Quakeress who, on recovering from a trance caused by illness, claimed to have received the divine power of working miracles. She had a small number of followers whom she duped into celibacy and poverty whilst slie was supported by them in idle luxury. She wore elegant robes in preaching to them. After her death the commiuiity disbanded. Another class of temporary community life may be illustrated by the refugees from the French Revolution, who established the town of Asylum on the north branch of the Susquehanna, in Pennsylvania, in 1793. Here were gathered former deputies of the French Asseml)ly, officers of the royal guard, and first families of France, together with SEEKING UTOPIA IN AMERICA 379 former wealthy residents of Santo Domingo who had escaped the ruins of that colony. They were engaged in any kind of labor which would earn bread. The company backing the enterprise eventually failed and the French scattered, claiming that they had been deceived. At present, Asylum is a Pennsylvania village of six hundred people with scarce a trace of its history in evidence. The oldest purely communistic societies in the United States, as well as the most successful, are those of the Shakers. Ann Lee, a "shaking Quaker" of Manchester, England, evolved a theory that Adam as originally created included both sexes ; but, being dissatisfied, was recreated and supplied with a com- panion, from which comes "Adam's fall." A life of celibacy is therefore an attempt to return to the original state of creation and must be pleasing to God. With eight followers, Ann Lee came to America in 1774 and settled in the woods near Albany, New York. Being deserted by her husband, she became a spiritual leader, and six years later removed to New Lebanon, near the borders of Mas- sachusetts and Connecticut, wliere a society was gradually gathered, which at times numbered several hundred persons. Branch societies were founded in New York, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine, and Connecticut. In the great religious revival in the middle west in 1801, societies were organized in Ohio and Kentucky. The life in the various branches was similar, embracing celibacy, separation of the sexes, constant toil in fields and factories, a common treasury and eating rooms, frequent religious meet- 380 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE ings, and guidance by the spirits. In their worship they perform a kind of religious *' dance." They call their organization the "Millennial Church," and claim that Christ made His first appearance as KELIUIOIIS JJANCi; Ul' TlIK S1IAKK1;S Jesus and His second as " Mother Ann." When the world is purified He will appear in His true dual form as God.^ * From an engraving owned by the Graduate Club, New Haven, Conn. ' Their full title is "The Millennial Church, or Limited Society of Believers." The term "Shaker" arose from their "unusual and violent manifestations of religious fervor." In 1890, they had fifteen communities existing in Massachusetts, Ohio, New York, New Hampshire, Maine, Kentucky, and Connecticut. The parent community at New LeV)anon, N. Y., of 450 members, was by far the largest. They claim a total membership of 1,728. SEEKING UTOPIA IN AMERICA 381 The desire of the Moravians to engage in mission work among tlie Indians led them to form a colony first in Georgia and afterwards, in 1741, "at the forks of the Delaware,/' in Pennsylvania. Count Zinzen- VIKW OF IJETHLKHKM COMMUNITY BUILD dorf, their leader, noting that the building in which they held their first Christmas service was but little "^ The accompanying cut of the community buildings at Bethle- hem was made and printed in London in 1761 from a sketch by Gov. Pownall, of Massachusetts. The largest of the buildings is the Brethren's House, now occupied by the female seminary. During the Revolutionary War it was used as a hospital by the Conti- nental forces. The next largest building, toward the right, is the Widows' House, and between stands the old company office. The latter was the first building erected, dating from 1748. On the extreme right stands the Old Sisters' House and next to it is the building formerly used as a seminary. On the extreme left is the residence of one of the ministers. 382 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE removed from the hut in wliich their cattle were housed, named the j)lace Bethlehem. Branches were formed at Nazareth and Lititz in the same state. The colonists retained the individual family life, pro- viding only a men's house, a women's house, and a widows' house for those having no family relations. The community also provided churches, houses, shops, and mills. The simple German costume was generally worn but not required. Marriages were arranged by lot. Education shared with missions in their chief activity, and was not confined to the children of members of the community. After twenty years, the cooiDerative economical system was aban- doned. No traveler of early days failed to visit and to praise the peaceful life in the Moravian settlement at Bethlehem.^ For twenty years prior to 1803, George Rapp preached in Wiirttemberg and was persecuted by the state church as a "separatist." In the year above named, he and some of his advisers came to tolerant America and selected a site for a colony north of Pittsburg, in the state of Pennsylvania. From the thrifty peasant class of Germany, seven hundred and fifty converts were brought out and founded the com- munal town of Harmony. Hence they are often called "Harmonists." ^ When the doctrines of John Huss reached Bohemia and Moravia, they gave rise to the "Bohemian Brethren," commonl}- called Moravians. They pledged themselves to take the Bible as their only guide in life. Being persecuted, they found refuge on the estate of Count Zinzendorf, in Saxony, from which missions were sent to America. At the last census they had ninetj'-four organiza- tions embracing 11,781 members, mostlV in Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and Wisconsin. SEEKING UTOPIA IN AMERICA 383 Husbands and wives were not divorced, but volun- tarily assumed tlie new relations of brother and sister. The unmarried men and women were housed separately. The men abandoned the use of tobacco. Mothers gave up their children to the general com- munity. Such departures from the accustomed methods of life could not be continued when sur- rounded by people living in the usual manner. In 1815, therefore, the Rappites decided to change their location and pur- chased thirty thou- sand acres of land in the uninhabited ^^^^^^^ i '^^'Iri region abutting on the Wabash a few miles above its mouth, and there founded their "New" Harmony, in what is now COMMUNITY HOUSES. KCOXOMY. PEXXSYLVANIA Indiana. But fever soon made its appearance, the land was low, and neighbors began to appear, who looked with suspicion on the new way of living. Finding an opportunity of selling New Harmony to Robert Owen, whose experi- ment will be described later, the Harmonists returned to Pennsylvania and founded "Economy" on the banks of the Ohio, a few miles below Pittsburg. Here these celibates throve and amassed great wealth ; but prohibiting marriage and fearing discord if they admitted new members, the society gradually became disintegrated by death, and the courts at last 384 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE m declared a division of the property among those who could show claims. The community of Separatists at Zoar, Ohio, may be studied as an example of a religious community. In 1817 Joseph M. Bimeler (Baumler) a man possess- ing a good education and sound business qualifications, led some two hundred and twenty-five men, women, and children from Wurttemberg, Germany, to Phila- delphia. Bimeler had purchased more than five thousand acres of land in eastern Ohio, and his people, after many h a r d - sliips and largely by the charity of the Friends, reached their new home. Their lack of means com- pelled them to aban- don the idea of purchasing individual portions of the land from Bimeler and to merge all their labor and their earn- ings in the communal " Society of Separatists of Zoar." The organization was both political and religious. Government was in the hands of three trustees elected by the members. The families lived A DWKLLINU SEEKING UTOPIA IN AMERICA 385 generally in a village which they called Zoar, and went out to till the surrounding farm land. All ceremonies were banished, the head was to be uncovered to no mortal, everybody was to be addressed as "du" (thou), and no military service was to be performed. Sectarianism was abolished, and Bimeler was both preacher and agent for the society. Marriage was at first opposed, but Bimeler having espoused a young woman detailed as his house servant, the idea of celibacy was abandoned. Each person was allowed two suits of clothes yearly, and shoes upon order of the trustees. All clothing was made in the common tailor and seamstress shops, the material coming from the society's looms and mills. Cradles, baby carriages, and household furni- ture were made on the same patterns. To the common bakehouse nnd dairy some member of each family came to draw the daily portion. When cider was made, it was drawn in a cart from door to door to be distributed. Men and women alike worked in the fields when necessary. Sunday work was not prohibited, because God allowed the crops to mature on that day. At first, children at the age of three were taken from the parents and placed in the society's institution for children, but this plan was gradually abandoned. Attendance on the community school was compulsory, the boys going until sixteen and the girls until fifteen years of age. With the exception of the *' palace" of "king" Bimeler, the houses w^re built of logs or plastered scantling, and roofed with red tile. There was no time for reading, and the only amusement afforded the young people was to collect 386 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE in the public garden on Sunday evenings and sing German songs. These songs were of a religious nature, some of them referring to the religious motive of the community/ The community prospered for many years. It owned over seven thousand acres of land, besides mills and shops of various kinds. The membership never exceeded five hundred, although the joint prop- erty was estimated at one and one-half million dollars. Members withdrawing forfeited their share, this rule being sustained in two cases by the state courts. No Americans ever joined the society. Bimeler died in 1835 and no successor was found. With the coming of a railroad to Zoar and the admis- sion of the children of non-members to the school, a larger outlook Avas unavoidable. The younger mem- ' Following is a tianslation of the chorus of a Zoar song: Lead me. Father, out of liarm To the (luiet Zoar farm If it be Thy will. SEEKING UTOPIA IN AMERICA 387 bers became dissatisfied. The early religious zeal had departed. Modern dress crept in, and the pres- ence of visitors caused the value of money to become known. The desire for possessing one's own, inherent in human nature and the great barrier to communal projects, brought about a vote for the division of the property and the dissolution of the society. In 1898 this was peacefully accomplished, each share approx- imating one thousand five hundred dollars. This sum represented the life earnings of the older mem- bers. Many of the younger members have already left the vicinity and the picturesque Zoar is a thing of the past.^ During the early part of the nineteenth century a number of people in Constance, SchafFhausen, Zurich, and adjacent parts of Germany and Switzerland, received "inspirations" during a kind of trance or other physical manifestation. The inspired words were carefully taken down and became a guide for future action. Under an inspiration, several of the leaders came to America in 1842 and purchased land near Buffalo, New York. One tliousand believers were brought over and uj^on this land founded the community of Eben-Ezer. Communism was not at first contemplated, but it became necessary in furnishing emj^loyment for artisans in the undeveloped country. In 1855 the members migrated to Iowa and developed fully the ^The Ohio Archaeological and Historical Quarterly, July, 1899, contains an illustrated monograph on the Zoar communitj" prepared by Hon. E. O. Randall, of Columbus, Ohio. The illustrations on pages 384 and 386 are taken from it. 388 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE communal society of Amana. Several villages were established, the families living in separate houses but having meals in common. The sexes were kept apart at table and all intermingling discouraged, although marriage was not forbidden. The wedding ceremony consisted in reading the fifth chapter of Ephesians. COMMUNITY OF NEW ICARIA, IOWA Pictures and music were forbidden as idolatrous. The use of tobacco was allowed. Every man was allowed forty dollars a year for clothing, every woman thirty and every child ten. Farming and stock rais- ing were the chief employments. In later years this society has increased in numbers, and is now mod- erately prosperous.^ 1 Amana is a Hebrew word signifying "faithful.'' Tliey style themselves "The True Inspiration Congregation." In 1890 they had 1,600 members living in seven villages in Iowa county, Iowa. See the United States Census of 1890, vol. I., part 7, p. 325. CHAPTER XXXII SEEKING UTOPIA IN AMERICA (CONTINUED) Communism based on economic and altruistic rather than religious grounds has experienced two great revivals in the United States, in one of which it took the form of Owenism and in the other Fourierism. Robert Owen, a wealthy cotton manufacturer who had instituted model factories at New Lanark, Scot- land, came to America with high ideas of a coopera- tive plant in an untrammeled and untainted new world. He was received with profound interest and was given a respectful hearing when he read a series of lectures and exhibited his models in the hall of the House of Representatives before President Monroe, President-elect Adams, the justices of the Supreme Court, and many members of Congress. A western state seemed to him to present the most natural advantages for his experiment and he accepted the offer of the thirty thousand acres at New Harmony, Indiana, from the Harmonists, when they decided to go back to Pennsylvania. He had good financial backing and easily paid the required one hundred and fifty thousand dollars. One hundred and sixty houses, built by the Harmonists, afforded immediate shelter for his followers. A flour mill, a stone quarry, orchards, and a vineyard promised work and food. He issued an address to the " industrious and well- 389 390 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE disposed" of every race and creed to come to him. Thrifty people were inclined to be satisfied where they were, but the restless and improvident by the hun- dred flocked to New Harmony allured by free land and the prospect of getting something for nothing. The desirable could not be winnowed from the idle and vicious. So long as the capital of Owen and his backers lasted, the community flourished. Seven dif- ferent "constitutions" were put forth in the search THK ASSKMBLY HALL, XKW HARMOXY COMMUNITY* for a workable basis and to secure some kind of har- monious action. Finally, in order to purge the com- munity, Owen was obliged to tear down some of the log cabins occupied by the hangers-on. His carefully- planned workshops and his model lodging house remained on paper. He found it was one thing to direct a manufacturing community in the old world, where classes were acknowledged, but quite another to manage a group of democrats on the American * By courtesy of Mr. Arthur Dransfiekl, of New Harmony. SEEKING UTOPIA IN AMERICA 391 frontier, where each felt himself the equal of his neighbor and refused to be ordered by any head. His money was gone and he returned to England with a sad heart, but continued until his death his attempts to establish a community in America/ During the few years that New Harmony (or New Lanark in America) lived, it furnished inspiration for the founding of at least eleven other communities FKEE NEGRO COMMUNITY, NASHOBA, TENNESSEE* located in New York and the states immediately west. The most prominent were at Yellow Springs, Ohio ; Haverstraw, Franklin, and Coxsackic, New York ; Forestville and Macluria, Indiana ; and Kendal, near Canton, Ohio. At Nashoba, near Nashville, in Shelby county, Tennessee, an experiment was made by Fanny Wright to emancipate gradually the negroes and to 1 A sketch of Owen's work at New Lanark and of the plans of Fourier, with a drawing of an ideal phalanstery, may be found in Kaufman's "Utopias from Sir Thomas More to Karl Marx.'' *From Mrs. Trollope's "Travels in America." 392 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE teach them to be self-sustaining. ^ The average life of these experiments was about one year. There was no avowed creed and no form of religious worship. Dissensions arose constantly on such questions as the proper observance of Sunday, legitimate amusements, and the kind and quantity of food. But the impos- sibility of abolishing the inherited feeling of social classes with the abolition of property was the stand- ing grievance among •"' ' those who testified to the causes of failure. About the time that Owen was making his experiment at New Harmony, Morris Birkbeck and George Flower purchased six- teen thousand acres of land in Illinois near the Wabash river and founded the towns of New Albion and Wamsborough. Al- though much inter- ested in Owen's attempts and frequently visited by him, they did not contemplate any communistic *W ENGLISH HOUSE AT ALBION, ILLINOIS ^On Nashoba (sometimes spelled Neshoba), see the Atlantic Monthly for July, 1874. Frances Wright was a native of Scotland, who was associated witli many reform movements of America, especially a working-man's party in New York state, about 1880, dubbed the "Fanny Wright party." Her extreme views prevented many followers. At one time she was the wife of D'Arusmont, a French philosopher, but is seldom given his name by writers. After the failure of Nashoba, she took twenty of the negroes to Hayti. SEEKING UTOPIA IN AMERICA 393 features, but simply a colony of Englishmen who would be secure in individual ownership as soon as each was able to pay for the land he purchased of the founders. The failure of the project was due largely to dissensions among the proprietors themselves. Another and more nearly communistic colony came from France to Texas twenty-five years afterwards to carry out the theories of Etienne Cabet, as exemplified in his romance, " Icare. " Sixty-nine of these Icarians went to the company lands near the Red river to pre- pare the way for the general exodus the following year. But in the meantime the Republic of 1848 was declared in France, much of the discontent disap- peared, and when Cabet started he was accompanied by eighteen followers instead of the anticipated thousands. At New Orleans they were met by the remnant of the Texan colony, emaciated by sickness, suffering from lack of sufficient funds, and recounting with horror the stories of their experiences. Texas was abandoned and the united colony went up the Mississippi to the recently deserted Mormon town of Nauvoo, Illinois. As so frequently happened, dissen- sions followed and the colony divided, part going to Missouri and the remainder to Adams county, Iowa. The Icarians prospered at the latter place, and an off- shoot founded Icaria-Speranza at Cloverdale, Cali- fornia, which soon died. The original plan of a community was gradually modified so as to allow each member private property to the amount of fifty dol- lars. By 1890, through divisions and dissensions they had been reduced in numbers to twenty-one, living in an unattractive place, and owning 950 acres of 394 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE land. The end came in 1898 when the courts set- tled up affairs and the community disbanded/ A peculiar form of association was evolved by John Humphrey Noyes, who had studied theology at Yale, and had become convinced of the possibility of living a sinless life. He gathered a number of followers '^ft'^fi^r*'^^^ ONEIDA COMMUNITY HOUSE who abolished private proi3erty, cured sickness by simple faith, and attempted to regulate scientifically marriage and birth. They were called ''Perfec- tionists." Driven from Vermont by their neighbors 1 Dr. Albert Sliaw, of the American Review of Reviews, has written a monograph entitled "Icaria." One of the Icarian songs had a chorus : TravaillcMirs de la grande cause, Soyons liers de notre destin; L'egotiste seul se repose— ( Travaillons pour le genre liumaxi. Oh, workers in the noble cause, I>et us extol our destiny; Tlie selfish only seek repose^ Strive ever for tlie human race. SEEKING UTOPIA IN AMERICA .395 because of their "free love" tendencies, they found refuge in 1848 on Oneida creek, New York. Branches were formed at Wallingford, Connecticut, and else- where, but few prospered as did the parent com- munity. The members- depended on agriculture and the manufacture of baskets, traps, and silk twist. In 1875 the society had two hundred and fifty-three members and property worth a half million dollars. Tlieir buildings were the best yet seen in an American community. The reluctance of parents to abandon their children to the community, as well as pres- sure from public sentiment, finally forced them to make marriage conformable to the general usage. In 1880 the communism of property was changed to a joint-stock company, which still exists.^ One of the most celebrated attempts at community life was made in Massachusetts, largely by Unitarians. Headed by Dr. Channing, a little group of scholars inaugurated a movement looking tOAvard the develop- ment of a higher spiritual and social life through individual introspection and self-culture. The Dial, under Margaret Fuller's direction, was the official mouthpiece, and in 1841 it announced that an attempt would be made to carry out these "transcendental'"^ ideas on a farm of two hundred acres, about nine ' Noyes has written one of the most complete descriptions of com- munities in America, ''The History of American Communism." See also Nordhoff's "Communities in America" and Hind's "Amer- ican Communities." 2 This word was derived from their belief that ' ' there is an order of truth that transcends the sphere of the external senses. Their leading idea is the supremacy of mind over matter. . . . They look forward to a more pure, more lovely, more divine state of society than was ever realized on earth." — Rev. George Ripley in The Dial. 396 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE miles southwest of Boston. It was not so niiicli a community as a joint-stock company of laborers. It promised a five per cent annual dividend to stock- holders if all other claims were waived. The charter members of this Brook Farm Association for Educa- tion and Agriculture were George Ripley, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Minot Pratt, Charles A. Dana, William B. Allen, Sophia W. Ripley, Maria T. Pratt, Sarah F. Stearns, Marianna Ripley, and Charles 0. Whit- more.^ Payment was made for labor by the hour, the orders being exchanged for goods at the company warehouse. Yet the chief thought was to have ** leisure to live in all the faculties of the soul." To this end no one was to be employed wholly in bodily labor, but at noontime the garb of the workman was exchanged for that of the philosopher, teacher, and poet, and the remainder of the day devoted to culture and amusement. In the harvesting season much pecuniary loss was sustained by this rigid restriction upon the number of working hours in a day. Four years the experiment continued, not, indeed, without some ludicrous happenings to these poet ^ George Ripley was the ministei' of the Purchase Street Unitarian Church of Boston, and at Brook Farm became the teacher of intel- lectual and natural philosophy and mathematics. His wife, Sophia W. Ripley, was teacher of history and modern language. Minot Pratt was a printer and became one of the hardest workers on the farm. His wife, Maria T. Pratt, assumed control of the domestic life of the community. Charles A. Dana was a Harvard graduate of twenty-four, and taught Greek and German in the school. Haw- thorne remained on the farm but a few months. William B. Allen was superintendent of the farm and carried the milk nine miles to Boston to sell. JNIargaret Fuller was but a temporary resident and never a stockholder. Ralph Waldo Emerson and A. Bronson Alcott were visitors, but never residents. See Codman's "Brook Farm Memoirs" and Hawthorne's " Blythedale Romance." SEEKING UTOPIA IN AMERICA 397 farmers.^ The school was crowded and additional buildings were erected to supplement the original farm-house called *'The Hive." A vast community building to cost ten thousand dollars was begun. Sud- denly popular prejudice showed itself. It was claimed that the chastity of family life was destroyed by com- munity living. Many children were withdrawn from the school and the chief source of revenue impaired. The burning of the new building was the death knell. As the inevitable end drew near, Horace Greeley, the founder and editor of the popular New York Tribune, offered a refuge, and four of the best knoAvn *' Brook Farmers" found literary employment under him.^ The community was reorganized under the influence of Albert Brisbane, and dedicated to Fourierism. Brisbane, who returned from Europe in 1841 filled with the communal ideas of Fourier,^ had secured a column in the New York Tribune in which to explain the new doctrine. Remembrance of the panic and distress of 1837 was still fresh ; the restlessness of the people had not wholly abated, and it was a fruitful season for exploiting a new method of life. Public meetings were held in the principal cities, phalanxes organized, lands purchased on which to found phalan- ^ In a letter to Lydia Maria Cliilds, George William Curtis apolo- gizes for delay in writing by explaining that wiiilst sharpening his scythe one day he cut his thumb so deeply he had not since been able to hold a pen. 2 George Ripley, Charles A. Dana, George William Curtis, and Margaret Fuller. ^ Francois Marie Charles Fourier was a merchant of Lyons, France, who, about 1800, devised a system for social reform. He recognized in man certain fundamental passions and these were to be treated as are the natural sciences. He obtained his nomenclature of pha- lanxes, etc., from the organization of the Macedonian army. 398 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE steries, and a movement for better things begun. Manufacturing was not considered ; agriculture was to be the chief dependence. Owen had planned for his community buildings a great hollow square some- thing like a city block, where true communism should be practiced ; Fourier contemplated a central building with wings, which was to be occupied by a joint-stock company. Thirty-four Fourier phalanxes were organized in LONG HOUSE OF CRRESCO PHALANX various states, with a total membership of some eight thousand. An average of one thousand acres of land was purchased for each phalanx. This amount was far in excess of the need or ability to buy. A pha- lanx usually lived until the first mortgage fell due. Twelve died during their first year, although one at Ripon, Wisconsin, called " Ceresco," is said to have survived for seven years. The experience of Sylvania phalanx, of Avhich Horace Greeley was treasurer, may be taken as typical, SEEKING UTOPIA IN AMERICA 399 although Red Bank, New Jersey, lasted longer and is said to have possessed the stronger hope of Greeley. A prospecting committee, consisting of a doctor, an artist, and a cooper, was sent out from New York whilst the snow was yet on the ground, and selected two thousand acres of land in Pike county, in north- eastern Pennsylvania, a short distance from the canal. They engaged to pay nine tliousand dollars for the tract, which was but little cleared and very stony. Twenty-eight married men, twenty-seven married women, twenty-four single men, six single women and fifty-one children came out in the spring. Although the children averaged less than two to the individual family, they were felt to be burdensome. Maternal love found difficulty in yielding to the com- mon good. A farmhouse and an old mill constituted the home or phalanstery. The first four and one-half acres of new land were planted in buckwheat and pro- duced but eleven and one-half bushels. Seventeen acres of newly cleared land planted in wheat yielded only as much as the seed planted. After a trial of less than two years, the original owner "good naturedly" took back the land on which two thou- sand dollars had been paid and canceled further obligations. Many of the other phalanxes may be grouped about some city. From New York there came not only Sylvania but also Peace Union, McKean county. Social Reform, Goose Pond, Leroysville and One Mentian — all located in northeastern Pennsylvania. About Rochester, New York, were grouped Mixville, Ontario, Clarkson, North Bloomfielcl, and Jefferson 400 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE county phalanxes. In Pittsburg were organized Trumbull, in Trumbull county, Ohio; Brook Farm, near Wheeling (now West Virginia) ; and Ohio at Pultney Bottom. Influences at Cincinnati gave birth to Clermont in Clermont county, ,Ohio ; Integral at Middle town, Ohio ; and Prairie Home, in Logan county, Ohio. Alphadelphia was located at Kala- mazoo, Michigan ; and Washtenaw at Ann Arljor in the same state. Indiana had a phalanx in La Grange county. Illinois had one in Bureau county and another in Sangamon county. The phalanx in Wis- consin has already been mentioned. Separatists must have ideas at variance with the mass of tlie people, and hence tliey are often at variance with each other. Possibly no such aggrega- tion of peculiar people was ever brought together as could have been found in one of these American com- munities. Some were vegetarians and taunted those at the meat table with having been to the graveyard and with eating a dead body. Some would not use pepper and salt because they were not foods ; others would eat no bread save that made of Dr. Graham's flour. Some lived entirely on bread and molasses. One community was described as " No God, no govern- ment, no marriage, no meat, no salt, no pepper," and its members not as Fourierites but as " Furyites." * ^ There came to a communistic society in Indiana in midwinter a man wearing a straw Hat, wooden shoes, and cotton clothing. He would wear nothing which an animal had furnished and, of course, would eat no meat. He would not sleep on a feather bed or feather pillow. Being an Abolitionist, he refused to eat rice, cane sugar, or molasses, and would not have indigo used in washing his linen, lest he might encourage slave labor. For the same reason he would not use tobacco and, from temperance principles, abjured liquor. SEEKING UTOPIA IN AMERICA 401 Since tlie decay of Fourierism, a number of spas- modic communities have been tried, such as Greeley, Colorado ; Esperanza in Kansas ; and New Odessa in Douglas county, Oregon. It is estimated that fully fifty of these experiments have been made in the last half of the century. The feeling of individuality which is breathed in with the air in America, as well as the unusual strength of home ties, will probably continue to act against such communities in the United States. But those who have sought a Utopia in individual happiness and the approval of conscience have not sought it in vain in the western world. CHAPTER XXXIII AMERICAN REFORMS AND REFORMERS America, during the expansion of its population, would seem to offer a fertile field for reforms. A new people, bound by no old customs, possessing freedom of speech, a low per cent of illiteracy, unbounded resources, recruited from the discontented of all nations, so happy that they become sympathizers — small wonder that every reform has found a hearing and some followers. Some reforms, like divesting the church of an official secular sanction and turning its activities into lines of charity and social well-being, have been accomplished so quietly that they are seen only by contrasting the former with the present con- dition. Others, like the temperance reform, are frequently associated with "movements" which cause a temporary excitement. The first widespread religious "revival" in America, about 1740, was accompanied by violent physical rigors commonly called "the jerks." ^ The revival ^vhich marked the end of the century was most mani- fest in the newer re«:ion bevond the Alleo:hanies. Churches had not yet been erected of sufficient size to accommodate the crowds, and preachers were com- pelled to resort to the open air. Since travel was so arduous the meetings were continued at the same place several days. The people came in covered ^ See page 49. 403 AMERICAN REFORMS AND REFORMERS 403 wagons or brought tents in which they lived. In this way in Kentucky the meeting became a "camp" meeting.^ The revival of 1858 originated in New England, and spread not only through the United States but to England as well. It was marked by no special demonstrations, unless by the quickening of church agencies through the various reforms pending at that time, and a greater harmony among the various church denominations. The fourth revival ^^^' Ur^^liMm CAMP MEETING AT SING SING, NEW YORK appeared about 1870, under the influence of the preaching of Moody and the singing of Sankey, first in England and then in America. Its prime aim was to repopularize th6 study of the Bible. ' In his " History of the People of the United States," vol. II., p. 579, McMaster gives an interesting description of the early camp meetings, the first of which he says was held at Gasper River church, Kentucky, in July, 1800. The illustration of the camp meeting at Sing Sing, New York, is from an old lithograph in the Library of Congress. 404 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE In a few instances the enthusiasm of reform has led to such extremes as the " anti-fire" movement, in which people refused to use fire since it was reserved for the punishment of the wicked. A reform such as vegetarianism w^as based on the humane ground of not destroying brute life to sustain human life. Again, such changes as Dr. Graham advocated, the making of flour from the entire grain of the wheat, w^ere based on hygienic principles.^ No reform movement in America is comparable with the abolition of slavery, since it was connected with the most discordant element in the national life. The Society of Friends or Quakers had urged the abolition of slavery in colonial days, and soon after the Revolution the different northern states abolished slavery, some by immediate and others by gradual emanciiDation. But few seemed to think that the national government had a right to interfere with the custom in any state which favored it. Following the adoption of the Constitution there were forty years of quiet, broken only by an occasional petition of the Friends to Congress to abolish human slavery. Many persons agreed with Jefferson in thinking the system w^'ong from an economic standpoint, but saw no ^ The use of a purely vegetable diet was advocated as early as the time of Pythagoras, a Grecian philosopher in the sixth century be- fore Christ. It is extensively followed by the Hindus and other peoples of the east. Sylvester Graham, a Presbyterian minister of Connecticut in his work as a temperance lecturer, conceived the idea that the use of meat as a food produced habits of intemperance. He therefore advocated a vegetable diet and the making of wheat bread from unbolted flour, tlms preserving the bran as well as the white portion. Flour made according to this process is called Graham flour, and the bread Graham or " brown" bread. Graham's book on " Bread and Bread-Making " appeared about 1840. AMERICAN REFORMS AND REFORMERS 405 method of disposing of the negroes if they should be freed. Tlie American Colonization Society was organized in 1816 to export them to Africa, and under various forms and during forty years sent over about ten thousand freedmen, many of whom returned disheartened to America.^ But the question was to assume a new and moie disturbing aspect. In 1821 in the little Quaker village of Mt. Pleasant, Ohio, a saddler named Ben- jamin Lundy issued the first number of The Genius of Universal Emancipation, and thereby inaugurated an 1 The negro republic of Liberia, on the west coast of Africa, whose independence was declared in 1847, owes its foundation to the Colo- nization Society. Abraham Lincoln was always strongly in favor of colonization as a solution of the great problem. 406 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE agitation against slavery from an ethical standj^oint. Removing from place to place with his paper, he came eventually to Boston, where he met a practical printer and editor, William Lloyd Garrison. Garri- son had the reformer's instinct and had already con- nected himself with the temperance movement ; but the abolition work seemed more pressing, and he formed a partnership with Lundy to publish a paper in Baltimore. Lundy had been content to advocate emancipation as a gradual process, to secure the freedom of children born hereafter, to ameliorate the condition of the slave, and to j^rovide opportunity of self help for the freeman.^ But Garrison was an impetuous, militant reformer. He argued that if the emancipation of a child was right, then the emancipation of its parents was right ; that if freedom after twenty years' servitude was just, then immediate freedom was just. He also accused the clergy of fostering slavery because they did not openly attack it. He therefore, in 1831, started an independent paper, The Liberator, in Boston, having for its motto "Unconditional emanci- pation."^ His first editorial contained a challenge. ^ In summing up his efforts for abolition, Lundy in 1830 said that he had spent several tliousands of his hard earned dollars ; had traveled on foot live thousand miles and in other ways twenty thousand miles; had visited nineteen states and held more than two hundred meetings; and had made two voyages to the West Indies in the interests of colonization. In 1889 he went to the little village of Lowell, Illinois, to revive his first abolition paper, but death prevented a consummation of the plan. Mr. R. Williams, of Streator, Illinois, is heading a movement to erect a suitable monument over Lundy 's grave in the Quaker cemetery at Clear Creek, Putnam county, Illinois. Lundy 's efforts in Texas were described on page 314. ^ This motto was due to the fact that most of the northern states in abolishing slavery had provided for gradual emancipation; for AMERICAN REFORMS AND REFORMERS 407 **I am in earnest — I will not equivocate — I will not excuse — I will not retract a single inch — and I will be heard." Conducting his paper under great hardships, Gar- rison was able in three years to launch the American Anti-Slavery Society at Philadelphia. Branches were organized all through the north, and thousands of Tl ^^^ -■ 1 ^^^§ l'^^^^^^^ AN ABOLITION MKETING members were secured. Petitions poured into the various legislative bodies. This agitation disturbed the business relations between the north and the south, and the Abolitionists were often roughly handled and their places of meeting mobbed and burned. Illus- trations were made showing black and white mingling the freedom of all children born hereafter ; and for prohibiting the introduction of more slaves. Whittier supported Garrison in his attitude toward the clergy. See his "Pastoral Letter," written when the clergymen of Boston prote.sted against holding abolition meetings in the churches. 4:0» THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE together in Abolition meetings. Yet as is always the case, the movement throve on such opposition. About 1840 it reached its largest proportions ; but just as it seemed to promise some results, dissensions arose among the reformers themselves. To such radicals as Garrison, Wendell Phillips, the Tappans, and Samuel Mays, the national government seemed dominated l)y tlie slavery interests, and they assumed the position of " non-resistants," refusing to take any part in civic life. Another wing composed of men like the poet Whittier, Birney, Gerrit Smith, Alvan Stewart, and Holley, thought abolition could be accomplished only by the formation of a third polit- ical party. They declared that moral action without political action was an absurdity in a republic.^ The results proved the wisdom of the attitude of the conservative or anti-Garrison wing. Their Liberty party led, after numerous vicissitudes, to the Free Soil party, and this in turn to the Republican party. ^ The Garrison faction continued to revile the govern- ^ When John Brown made his demonstration at Harper's Ferry, the Garrison wing approved. Wendell Phillips went to North Elba, New York, to speak at his grave. But Whittier in "Brown of Ossawatomie"" said: Perish with him the folly that seeks through evil good! Long live the generous purpose unstained with human blood! Not the raid of midnight terror, but tlie tliought wliich underlies; Not tlie borderer's pride of daring, but the Christian's sacrifice. 2 The Abolitionist or Liberty party in 1840 nominated James G. Birney of New York, and Francis Lemoyne of Pennsylvania, for their ticket. Four years later they named Birney and Thomas Morris, of Ohio. In 1848 they united with the Free Soilers or Free Democrats in nominating ex-President Van Buren of New York, and Charles Francis Adams of Massachusetts. This same combina- tion named John P. Hale of New Hampshire, and George W. Julian of Indiana, four years later. In 1856 they went in with the new Republican party, nominating John C. Fremont of California, and W^illiam L. Dayton of New Jersey. AMERICAN REFORMS AND REFORMERS 409 ment, to refrain from taking any part in it, and to educate the people, until the end came in tlie Civil War. TJiG Xi^emtor suspended publication in 1866, at the age of thirty-five years. Mingled with the disturbing political division among the reformers was the annoying woman's rights question, the Garrison following favoring and the others opposing the participation of women in the Abolition meetings. The question was brought up by the G r i m k e sisters, the ^ ^ CARTOON ON WOMAN'S RIGHTS REFORM inspired Caro- 1 i n i a n s , ' ' ^ although it assumed national proportions when women were excluded from the World's Abolition convention in London in 1840. These women resolved to hold a meeting after they returned to America to secure the right of being heard in public places, and also to gain reforms in the right of mar- ried women to property. A convention was held * Sarah Moore Grimke and her sister, Angelina (Mrs. Theodore D. Weld), were daughters of a prominent South Carolina jurist, and emancipated their slaves after his death. Coming to Philadelphia they threw themselves into the Abolition cause and insisted upon participating in the public meetings. The older sister was one of the first lecturers claiming the equal rights of woman. 410 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE eight years later at Seneca Falls, New York, which adopted a declaration of independence. It was modeled after the document of 1776. The word "man" was substituted for "George III." in enum- erating the wrongs they suffered at his hands. It was claimed that he had monopolized all remunerative pursuits, had arrogated to himself college education, and debarred women from the law, medicine, and the pulpit. From 1830 to 1870 this agitation of the rights of women con- tinued in various forms, partici- pated in by Frances Wright, Elizabeth Den- ton, Betsy Combs, Lucy Stone, Lucretia Mott, Harriet Noyes, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and Olympia Brown. Mingled with the main reform were such kindred subjects as the abolition of imprisonment for debt, hygienic and sensible dress, homestead laws, the carrying of the mails on Sunday, temperance, bankrupt laws, and the education of women. It is not difhcult to connect the rise of Mormonism with the other reforms of 1840. Credulous i^eople of that time believed that the age of miracles had not passed ; that revelations were yet vouchsafed to favored persons througli various media ; and that NAUVOO— RESIDENCE OF JOSEPH SMITH ,^ AMERICAN REFORMS AND REFORMERS 411 prophets were raised up for tlie ruling of tlie people. The divining rod was firmly believed in ; the search for gold was almost incessant. Although Joseph Smith had found his metallic book of Mormon and his reading glasses in some deserted "gold diggings" near Manchester, New York/ thirty years before this time, he and his followers were so driven from place to place by persecution that it was not until the great year of reforms that the Mormon movement, then in progress at Nauvoo, Illinois, assumed sufficient pro- portions to attract general attention. Mormonism offered an oligarchical religious community, with tithe-paying instead of profit-sharing. No attempt was made to abolish individual property or the individual family. The "separatist" feature appealed very strongly, since it was coupled with religious direction through the revelations to the prophets. Nauvoo was laid out on a magnificent scale, cover- ing an area six miles square, on the bluffs fronting the Mississippi. The erection of a vast temple or house of worship was begun. The city became a refuge for the dissatisfied and those who were aroused under the influence of the various reform movements. The number of inhabitants soon reached ten thousand. 1 According to the Book of Mormon, one people crossed to America at the dispersion after the building of the tower of Babel. For its wickedness this tribe was destroyed, but it buried certain "plates " containing its history. These were found by one of the lost tribes of Israel which also crossed from the old world. Dividing into two factions, one lapsed into barbarism and formed the Ameri- can Indians. It destroyed the other branch but not before its prophet, Mormon, had buried the plates where Joseph Smith found them. The printed book, as translated from the plates, is about one-third the size of the Bible, and is divided into sixteen " books,'' and these into chapters and verses. Some critics assert that the whole was written by the Rev. Solomon Spaulding. 412 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE Illinois was at this time undergoing a transitional state of border lawlessness, and depredations by organized bands of desperadoes were not uncommon.* Under pretense that the Mormons were counter- feiters, that they sheltered thieves, and that they r -NAXTVOO— SITE OF MORMON AXD ICARIAM C(»MMUNITIKS planned to arise and kill their neighbors, the people of the surrounding country attacked Nauvoo, mur- dered Joseph Smith, and pillaged and destroyed the city of Nauvoo.^ ^ No doubt justice was tardy in these outlying communities, but that can not pardon these "regulators'' who assumed the guise of preservers of the peace and in their lawlessness exceeded those they would suppress. One Illinois band known as ' ' Flatheads, ' ' organ- ized to punish horse-stealing, used its power to avenge personal wrongs. 2 Joseph Smith was more of a visionist than the vagrant that he is usually described. He had his first revelation during a stirring religious revival. Some of his most influential followers at Nauvoo were antagonized by his revelation authorizing him to take spiritual wives. From these troubles arose his arrest by the state authorities. He was in jail at Carthage, Illinois, when his brother and himself were killed by the mob. AMERICAN REFORMS AND REFORMERS 413 A small portion of the Mormons followed "King Strang" to Wisconsin, but the larger number, under Brigham Young, successor of Smith, bowed to their fate.* Preparations were made to follow "the track of Israel into the west." The unfinished temple was converted into a workshop from which six hundred wagons were turned out. Homes were traded for horses. In 1846 preparations were complete, the great temple had been finished in order that prophecy might be fulfilled, and about twelve hundred of the faithful migrated amidst great hardshiiD to a tem- porary camping ground on the Missouri, opposite Council Bluffs. One thousand were left behind, as they were too poor to go with the others. Upon these luckless Mormons their neighbors fell with redoubled fury, burned the temple, sacked their dwellings, and drove the inhabitants over into Iowa. In 1847 Brigham Young headed a party into the boundless west in search of a retreat far from his persecuting fellow men. Unguided by compass, they came at length to the shore of what was called the Great Salt Lake, and with shouts and hosannas established the stakes of the holy city of Zion. A new temple was to occupy a prominent site. Every- thing was marked by religious zeal. Even the names they bestowed upon the physical features of their environment bespoke a religious spirit. The lake became the Dead Sea and beyond it lay the desert. Into the sea flowed the river Jordan. Near the Sea ^ Brigham Young, a Vermont carpenter, was converted and joined the church of the Latter Day Saints, at the age of thirty. He rose rapidly, and in three years was made one of the twelve apostles. On the death of Smith he was chosen head of the church. 414 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE of Galilee rose the Mount of Olives. Reproducing here the oriental life of the Savior, they could hope for peace and quiet. At least a century must elapse ere persecuting civilization could reach this isolated spot. Before word could be sent back to the Missouri, the "first immigration," embracing 1,553 people and 580 wagons, left the wretched huts which had consti- tuted their tempo- rary homes and set out with rejoicing, (lancing, and sing- ing for the "prom- ised land." They knew not where they were going, nor what new hard- ships were to be endured ; but no future condition could be worse than their past and they had sublime faith in their prophet. This was justified when they arrived in safety. The next year the "second immigration" brought 662 persons and 226 wagons. In time most of the wretched remnant left at Nauvoo also reached Utah, making in all about one-fourth the total number of people originally in that place. A shipload of Mormons from tlie eastern states came around by water to San Francisco and crossed the Sierras to the chosen place. BRKiHAM YOUNG'S FIRST KKSIDKNCK, SALT LAKE CITY AMERICAN REFORMS AND REFORMERS 415 Covetous liuman nature had been evidenced many times in the new country when men preempted far more land than they were able to cultivate and so failed to prosper by attempting too much. Brigham Young realized this fact and, in partitioning the farm-lands, insisted upon no family taking more than twenty acres. Much of the soil in the Promised Land SALT LAKE CITY — MORMOX TEMPLK AND TABERXACLE was found to be alkaline and lacking sufficient moisture for cultivation. But water could be brought from neighboring streams and conveyed to any part by means of artificial channels. In this way the Mormons probably inaugurated the great system of western irrigation which has so marvelously changed that region and caused the words " The Great Amer- ican Desert" to be struck from the maps. Zion 416 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE prospered/ but her people found no rest. The unex- pected discovery of gold in California and the build- ing of the Pacific railroad brought the persecuting Gentiles into the happy valley, and conflicts with the United States government soon followed. The dream of the " separatists " was at an end. It is now difficult to imagine where a spot may be found in the future to which non-conformists may retire. America offered many promises, but Amer- icans have proved as intolerant of radical movements as people of the old world. It is insufficient to say that the adoption of the polygamous relation in the family has caused all the persecution of the Mormons ; that it has made the people of the United States insensible to their previous cruel treatment and unmindful of the service they rendered in the Mex- ican war.^ The original cause of persecution lies back of that. That could not account for New York state laws which at one time forbade any Shaker com- munity from holding property exceeding five thousand 1 In 1890 the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints had 424 organizations and 144,352 communicants scattered through twenty- two states and territories, chiefly in Utah, Idaho, and Arizona. Since Young's death, John Taylor and then Wilford Woodruff have been first presidents. The latter in 1890, by a revelation, forbade further polygamous marriages. A reorganized branch of the church recognizes Joseph, the eldest son of Joseph Smith, as the true prophet. Its headquarters are at Lamoni, Iowa, and it has 431 organizations and 21,773 members, principally in Iowa and Missouri. This branch has always rejected polygamy. 2 While waiting at their temporary home on the Missouri, the Mormons were asked by President Polk to furnish a force to invade Upper California in the Mexican war then just begun. They sent 520 men fitted out at their own expense, who formed Cooke's expe- dition in connection with Kearny's. They served through the cam- paign, were discharged in California, and joined their families at Salt Lake when the tidings reached them that the site of Zion had been found. AMERICAN REFORMS AND REFORMERS 417 dollars in value and at another time pronounced them *' civilly dead." The hostility is not due to any par- ticular body of " separatists,'' but to the un-American principle of * 'separation." The political equality of man, the common schools, business relations, the vil- lage church, the undivided railway cars, the mingling on the streets — all point to man associating with his fellow man. They breed hostility and suspicion toward any group separating itself from the others. Self-reform by sep- aration is also repug- nant to the larger outlook of the reform of the masses. In America the absence of class by birth produces a general cooperative feeling and a faith in humanity as such. Yet it can not be said that any reform movement, however small, has been without influence in promoting the general happiness of the people. Reformers have died in despair because their individual hobbies failed of adoption ; but a larger outlook might dis- cover that each has had his influence in promoting a general happiness in America probably surpassing that of any other people. Horace Greeley, in defending the course of his Tribune advocating every kind of ism, gave forth a GRAVE OF BRIGHAM YOUKG 418 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE large measure of truth when he said : " Full of error and suffering as the world yet is, we can not afford to reject unexamined any idea which proposes to improve the Moral, Intellectual, or Social condition of man- kind. Better incur the trouble of testing and explod- ing a thousand fallacies than, by rejecting, stifle a single beneficent truth. . . . The plans hitherto suggested may all prove abortive ; the experiments hitherto set on foot may all come to naught (as many of them doubtless will) ; yet these mistakes shall serve to indicate the true means of improvement, and these experiments shall bring nearer the grand con- summation which they contemplate."^ 1 From an editorial of May 27, 1845. CHAPTER XXXIV INCREASE OF WELL-BEING AMONG THE PEOPLE The expansion of the American peoj^le has been marked especially by individual oiDportunity, comfort- able surroundings, and resultant happiness. The unparalleled resources of the soil, the diversity of topography, and the favorable conditions of climate have conspired to this end. To these concrete advan- tages has been added a more abstract benefit in the form of a government retained within the grasp of . the people by the steady growth of democracy. The Constitution testifies by its system of presiden- tial electors as well as by the election of senators through the state legislatures to the unwillingness of the fathers to trust the judgment of the masses. The suffrage was so restricted by property and other qualifications in the several states, that it is estimated but one of every twenty-three people was ^ entitled to vote in the first presidential election. The ratio is now estimated at one voter to five people. > Also the electors were chosen by the state legislatures in all save three of the states. The style of living as assumed by the presidents of the United States has grown more democratic and has gradually sloughed off tlie forms inherited from the old world. We have come a long distance from the coach and four white horses of *'His Excellency," President Washington ; from the balls given by the 419 420 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE Hon. Mrs. Langdon, the Mayoress, and Lady So-and- So ; from the addresses, the bows, and the ceremoni- als which consumed most of the opening week of each session of Congress. If at any time in the history of this evokition the government fell into the hands of a sure majority who went to an extreme, as did the early Federalists,' the people overthrew them and placed in power a representative of themselves as was Jefferson. If the government became monopolized by professional ofhce-holders, the people arose and placed in the president's chair one of their own num- ber as was Jackson. If statesmen juggled with a great issue like the slavery question, attempting to quiet it by compromises, the plain people at last cast aside all "available" candidates, and called nature's uncouth nobleman from the prairies to solve the question and yet preserve the Union. Democracy has not been able to prevent class legis- lation and favoritism, although it has made the individual better equipped for combating them. The American people did not create, but they inherited the conflict between the classes and the masses. Since evolution is such a slow process, it is quite unlikely that they will settle the struggle. The millennium is not so near at hand. But never in the history of this long contest has the individual had the consideration given him in this republic and nowhere have so many factors contributed to his hap- piness. The comfort and safety of life have been vastly increased by inventors for wdiom this new country offered unusual opportunities. It is estimated that FRANCIS'S INCREASE OF WELL-BEING AMONG THE PEOPLE 421 the chances of life have been increased as much as forty per cent by the life car of Joseph Francis.^ V Thirty-six thousand patents on agricultural imple- ments attest the predominance of that industry in the United States. Prob- ably three-fifths of ' % the capital of the United States is di- rectly dependent on inventions. The amount has been greatly increased along certain lines within the past few years. Be- tween 1880 and 1890, the capital invested in electrical supplies grew from one million to eighteen million dollars ; in electric light and power from one million to thirty-three million ; in dentists' supplies from seven hundred thousand to two million dollars. The development of the mining industry in the western states has been developed through inventions. As indicated in the preceding pages, transportation has been a constant desideratum in the expansion. The question of communication between water-ways soon grew into that of transportation between cities. Then came the more difficult problem of communica- tion between the various parts of the cities them- selves. In 1831 a car drawn by horses was placed ^Joseph Francis, proprietor of a New York boat-yard, in 1849 offered to the United States government a metallic life- car, but being refused, he stationed it at his own expense on the New Jersey- coast. The next year it rescued two hundred emigrants from the wreck of the British vessel Ayrshire. In 1888 Congress voted him a medal, which is preserved with the life-car in the Smithsonian Institution at Washington. 422 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE GOLD MINING BY IMPROVKD MACHINEKY upon the streets of New York and was imitated in other cities. The crowded condition of Broadway suggested to some wag the construction of a railway oyer the heads of the people. The suggestion was burlesqued in the comic papers, but in time it came to be realized. The education of the peoi3le by the people, long the dream of rul- ers and philoso- phers, has been brought about on an extended scale in the republic. Yet this important duty has been left almost entirely to local agencies. The state decides what is to be done but leaves the enforcement b^oaow.v «^\.,ev^o o. .rs r^.v.u. - --^ of the laws to the school dis- tricts. The na- tional govern- ment contents itself with col- lecting educa- tional statistics, granting copyright to authors, sending various scientific expeditions, printing for circulation useful information, conducting economic experiments, and supporting a Library of Congress. INCREASE OF WELL-BEING AMONG THE PEOPLE 423 The latter was founded primarily for government officials, but is open to the general public and prom- ises to become of unexpected service to students and writers.^ One need but reflect on the dissensions, persecu- tions, wars, and slaughters of the past to realize the LIBRARY OF CONGRKSS, RKADING ROOM peace which has followed a complete divorce of church and state in America. Nor are evidences wanting ^ The Library of Congress, as it is called, has been housed recently in a magnificent building in the city of Washington, with every facility for the student and investigator. The library was estab- lished in 1800 under the care of the clerk of the House of Repre- sentatives, but nearly all the books collected were burned by the British in 1814. Another fire occurred in 1851. At the present time the library contains about one million books and pamphlets, including duplicates. There are also 26,500 manuscripts, 52,181 maps, and 277,465 compositions of music. In 1899 over 100,000 readers visited the reading room, and nearly 300,000 books were consulted. 424 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE that a state may be sectless and not Godless. Neither is a free church, dependent upon the free will offerings and gratitude of the people, an object of charity and contempt. Instead of preparing a man for the future life, the state in America sees its duty in offering full opportunity to each man to prepare himself according to the dictates of his own con- science. The strength of the people has been recruited con- stantly by the influx of immigrants from the old world. If further contributions had been stopped at any given time, we should have lost the pleasant con- templation of offering an asylum for the oppressed and opportunity for those seeking self-help. Nor should we have received those strong virile elements which have given us a civic duty in education to per- form and at the same time have prevented our grow- ing sensual and effeminate. Like the valley of the Nile, America has received deposit after deposit of crude material which has readily been assimilated and has enriched the whole. In 1819 the collectors of customs of the United States were required to keep a record of the number of aliens arriving from foreign ports. Before that date only conjecture is possible, but the number of arrivals was only a little over thirty-three thousand annually, and the total less than that in a single year later. The fluctuations as shown in an accompanying diagram are not without cause. The decrease in immigration after 1840 was the result of the panic of 1837. The increase from 1846 to 1854 was due to the loss of the potato crop in Ireland, and the discovery INCREASE OF WELL-BEING AMONG THE PEOPLE 425 of gold in America. The decrease after 1854 was caused by the demand for troo^DS in the Crimean war and the Indian mutiny. This was followed by the American Civil war. The increase in the midst of the war was due to the Homestead act. The panic of 1872 shows a depressing result, but the reaction came in 1878. The year 1882 remains the banner year, with 788,992 arrivals. This sudden increase was due very largely to the advertising and low rates 1 ^ ^ p I , j I . , i . , 1 . . 1 r ~ 1 / • / \ /' ' '"-- \ / ', \ \ I ', \ ...- / ; \ ', ;' /' "^v/ L. \ ■ FLUCTrATIOXS IX XUMBEK OF IMMIGRANTS of rival steamship lines. The panic of 1892 caused a decrease in the number of arrivals during the six years following but the return of confidence in 1898 caused the number to rise rapidly again. In 1900 it will probably reach five hundred thousand. The United Kingdom, embracing all portions of the kingdom of Great Britain, has furnished almost one-third of the total number of immigrants . to the United States. But if the kingdom be divided, Germany leads in contributions, followed by Ireland, 426 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE and then England and Wales combined. If only the last few years be considered, Italy leads ; followed by Russia, Ireland, Germany, Hungary, Bohemia, Sweden, and England in order. The foreign-born element is very unevenly dis- tributed between the north and the south, as shown by an accompanying chart. The northern portion of the United States was in former times more attrac- tive, because there free labor was not obliged to OVtn 20 PER CENT OF fOREICN BIRTH OVER 75 PER CENT OFNATWc PABEMTACE DISTRIBUTION OF FOREIGN-BORN AND NATIVE-BORN POPULATION compete with slave labor. The south was also an agricultural region, affording small demand for day laborers and operatives. The universal westward line of movement caused the building of trunk lines of railways from the northern seaports leading wost- wardly through the north, and the immigrants have followed these. Besides, the prevailing urban life of the north is more nearly like the life in the old world than that of the rural south. The foreigner has been attracted by the noi'thern city, and lias in turn con- tributed to this growth. INCREASE OF WELL-BEING AMONG THE PEOPLE 427 This growth of cities is a most interesting element in the expansion of the American people, illustrating the infxLience of inheritance. At the taking of the first census (1790) only thirty-three people out of a thou- ^■. ji J L _( f' J r' ,1 :' PROPORTIONATK INCKKASE OF POPULATKIN OF CITIES sand lived in cities of over ten thousand inhabitants. In 1890 two hundred and ninety-two people in every thousand were living in such cities. Undoubtedly in tlie next census the number will surpass three hundred and thirty-three, showing over one-third of the entire 428 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE population living in cities/ In thus returning slowly to the method of life in the old world, the United States will still be far from the head of urban-dwell- ing countries. England and Wales have the largest percentage of their inhabitants living in cities ; Scot- land comes next, then Australia, Belgium, Saxony, Netherlands, Uruguay, Prussia, Turkey, Argentine Republic, the United States, and France.^ ^ The steady increase in the number of people living in cities of ten thousand or more is shown in the following percentages and illustrated in the diagram on the preceding page. 1790 1800 1810 1820 1830 1840 1850 1860 1870 1880 1890 3.35 3.97 4.93 4.98 6.72 8.52 12.49 16.13 20.93 22.57 29.20 The lack of growth between 1810 and 1820 is due to the War of 1812, which closed American commerce and turned the people to agriculture. The steady increase from 1840 to 1870 is due to rail- roads and canals, which built up cities at terminal and junction points. The panic of 1872, which closed factories and drove labor- ers to the western agricultural regions, caused a decrease. The remarkable growth after 1880 is due to the multiplication of manu- facturing plants located generally in cities. ^ The tendency of foreigners to flock to cities is illustrated in the Pullman car works in Chicago. Of the 7,152 employees in 1900, sixty per cent are foreign-born. The average for the whole United States is less than fifteen per cent. The number of Scandinavians in the works is double that of any other people. CHAPTER XXXV THE BEGINNINGS OF A COLONIAL SYSTEM When the raih'oad and the electric telegraph line reached California, they suggested the beginning of the end. Trade was now in touch with the Pacific by the western route. The dream of Columbus was realized. But the broad ocean was yet to be crossed before the ultimate goal of this western expansion could be reached. A century and a half before, Vitus Bering, a Dane under Russian employ, discovered that the great Pacific ocean narrowed to the north until only a strait, to which his name was given, separated the two continents. The achievements of the telegraph suggested the possibility of laying a cable across this strait, and thus uniting the two worlds on this old-new side. On the Asiatic coast, Russia gave every encouragement to the enterprise, promising right of way through Siberia, and even the construction of some of the line. On the American side, Russia could also be of assistance, since she had by discovery taken possession of the entire northwest coast, to which she gave the name of Russian America, In 1799 the Russian American Fur Company had been given a monopoly over the region. ^ Having obtained concessions from the governments of England, Russia, and the United States, the Western ^ The withdrawal of Russia from tlie middle parts of the Pacific coast of North America was described in chapter XXV. 429 430 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE Union Extension Telegraph Company, in 1865 ^ began to construct a line from New Westminster, near Van- couver's Island, northward along the Cascade range of mountains in British America. Other pa.rties began work at different points along the line. But two years later the company informed Congress that the project had been abandoned at a point some eight hundred and fifty miles north of New Westminster, after an expenditure of over three million dollars. The success of a cable across the Atlantic Ocean, after many trials, had proved fatal to the all-land project. The first attempt to lay an Atlantic cable by pay- ing it out from a vessel was stopped three hundred and thirty-four miles west of Ireland by the parting of the wire. The second attempt was made by start- ing in two directions from mid-ocean, but the cable again broke of its own weight. A third attempt from mid-ocean laid a cable to each shore, and for about a month messages were sent over it ; but the line was defective, and the current gradually failed.^ The fourth attempt started from the shore, but parted at a distance of one thouand miles. In 1866 a fifth attempt was made with an improved cable. It consisted of six strands of ^ The agitation of this subject was begun as early as 1856. The various companies are sometimes called the Overland Telegraph Company, the Russian-American Telegraph Company, etc. '■^Oliver Wendell Holmes, in a poem entitled "DeSauty," sug- gests that the chief electrician of the company, from whom the first message, "All right," had come, was a product of galvanic action and had perished with the current. Born of stream galvanic, with it he had perished! There is no De Sauty now there is no current! " THE BEGINNINGS OF A COLONIAL SYSTEM 431 wire laid around a seventh, covered with four layers of gutta percha and an outside covering of ten solid galvanized wires, each surrounded by five strands of white Manila yarn laid in tarred hemp. Between Ireland and Newfoundland the Great Eastern and her convoy covered 1,669 miles, and paid out 1,864 miles of this new cable. In February, 1866, a message was sent to President Johnson announcing the com- plete success of the Atlantic cable. The continents were at last linked together, and new-world enterprise had accomplished the task. The different parties engaged on the telegraph line in Russian America were like exploring parties in an unknown land. They brought back stories of streams filled with fish, of vast forests, of mineral wealth, and a northern climate ameliorated by the warm Japan current running along the coast. Newspapers were filled with their descriptions. The old land-hunger began to be felt again. The western star marking the ** destiny" of America was once more in the ascendency. Our relations with Russia suddenly assumed importance. Russia spoke first. When a special commissioner carried to the czar the congratulations of Congress upon his escape from assassination, his secretary of foreign affairs assured the new country of the most friendly feeling of the old, resting entirely upon com- mercial agreements.^ His majesty himself also com- mented on the pleasant relations existing between ^ Treaties and conventions between the United States and Russia had been made in 1824, 1832, and 1854, Russia had twice offered her services as mediator in the war of 1812, and later acted as arbiter in the final settlement with Great Britain. 432 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE the two countries, saying, "The two peoples have no injuries to remember In truth, Russia, in her unending struggle with England in the east, was the first European nation to appreciate the growing importance of the American people, and to wish to gain their allegiance by a benefit conferred. Then, too, Russia was just entering upon the emancipation of her serfs, and the struggle which the United States had been en- gaged in for the ulti- mate end of emanci- pation proved a new bond between them. During that contest, w hen England seemed to favor the Confederate states, and France sent Max- imilian to Mexico, a Russian fleet liad ap- peared in American waters " as a demon- stration of good-will and respect," accord- ing to Secretary Sew- ard.^ Russia also had permitted the United States to carry prizes into her ports, and had never received an agent of the enemy. ALASKAN TRADING POST ^ The tradition that the commander of the fleet had orders to aid the Federals if England interfered overtlj' for the Confederates can not be authoritatively verified. THE BEGINNINGS OF A COLONIAL SYSTEM 433 The cordial feeling thus engendered between the two nations was brought to a material basis in 1866 by a memorial from the inhabitants of Washington territory asking Congress to secure permission for them to cure fish, repair vessels, and secure fuel and water in Russian America. The charter of the great monopoly called the Russian American Fur Com- pany, which under a Russian charter had controlled the region since 1799, expired in 1867, and furnished an opportune time for Russia to dispose of this out- lying and almost useless province. During the Crimean war it had barely escaped capture by the English. Therefore at four o'clock in the morning of March 30, 1867,^ a treaty was signed by Baron Stoeckl, the Russian minister to the United States, and William H. Seward, secretary of state, by which, upon ratification, Russian America should become the property of the United States upon payment of seven million dollars. Two hundred thousand dollars were added to buy off all company claims existing under Russian contracts. As in the case of Louisiana, the United States as a neutral had profited by the old- world jealousy of England. The treaty was ratified by the Senate with only two dissenting votes, but in providing the money, the House showed a dissent of forty-three, to one hundred and thirteen affirmative. Some of this opposition was due to the reconstruction difficulties with President ^ Seward hoped to redeem the administration of President John- son by rallying the "patriotism" of the people with a new acces- sion of territory. Permission to make the sale reached the Russian minister by cable in the evening, and the transaction was hurried through before morning. 434 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE Johnson, but there was also objection made to the purchase of outlying and non-contiguous territory ; that it meant a new and dangerous policy ; and that it was favored only by those who saw opportunity of investment in the new industries thus opened or who wanted some co- lonial office/ The country was in the flush of vic- tory after the close of the Civil war, and the usual jingoism and claptrap about hauling down the flag was indulged in by those favor- ing the expendi- ture. "The flag should float over every foot of the continent, " it was declared in de- bate. " Our aim shall be to have no neiglibors at all." " The jaws of the nation must swallow it (British America) up." Beneath all lay tlie feeling that in this transaction England would be in some way injured, and revenge thus had for the loss of a portion of the Pacific coast ^ Majority and minority reports for and against appropriating the purchase money may be found in House Report 37, 4()tli Cong. 2nd Sess. See also debates in the "Congressional Globe." 40th Cong. 2d Sess., Part 4, and Senator Sumner's able speech, in his works. ALASKAN TOTEM I'OLK; THE BEGINNINGS OF A COLONIAL SYSTEM 435 ill the Oregon coiuitiy compromise. Bitter regret was expressed for this loss, since otherwise American dominion would now extend unbroken from the Gulf of California to Bering Strait. In any event, the acquisition of Alaska^ would give the United States a "jurisdictional preponderance" in the coming scene of commercial conflict — the Pacific. Few could have foreseen the far-reaching effects of this first expansion over non-contiguous territory. It had crept in gently, and under the thought that it ought to be contiguous and w^ould have been so if the upper Oregon country had not been abandoned. The word "colony" was not employed; indeed it would have been looked upon almost with horror by the American people. Yet the first x^roposition to create a territorial government was scarcely con- sidered in Congress, and the military rule which General Rousseau set up on taking possession was allowed to continue, ^ the laAVS of the United States simply being extended over the new land, and a ^Opponents had suggested in ridicule the name " Walrussia," a combination of walrus and Eussia. "Polario," and "American Siberia," came from the same source. Alaska, a native word, is said to mean "great land," and was suggested by Charles Sumner or Major-General Ilalleck (House Exec. Doc. 177, 40th Cong. 2d Sess., page 58). It was at first spelled Aliaska. 2 The ceremonies incident to the transfer, as described by the cor- respondent of a San Francisco paper, are printed in House Exec. Doc. 125, 40th Cong. 2d Sess. The Russian troops formed on the parapet in front of the governor's house at Sitka on the right of the government flag-staff. The American troops, disembarking from their transport, formed on the left of the staff. As spectators, there were naval officers, marines, and some sixty civilians, includ- ing six American and six Russian women. The flags were exchanged on the staff amidst salutes, followed by formal words of delivery and acceptance. The tears of the Russian governor's wife repre- sented the feeling of her people upon seeing this first dismember- ment of the Muscovite empire. 436 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE customs district created. Here was a colony in all senses of the word, and it was to be the beginning of the American colonial system. So insidiously does colonial precedent grow. Indeed, the old colonial method of company monop- oly so offensive in the early day was adopted in 1870, when the Alaskan Commercial Company was given I ""r fk*J ^^^B s^" s^ '" "■f^ £^H^^V -J^ ^ ipg-» ^B ^^^^^^ ALTAK OF RUSSIAN CHURCH, SITKA seal fishery rights. The government was urged to this action by "special agents" sent to examine the condition of the country. In truth, the government was helpless. It had a colony on its hands without any arrangement having been made for its control. Self-government seemed impossible. It was said that there were only one hundred and twenty-five white THE BEGINNINGS OF A COLONIAL SYSTEM 437 men in the whole country. The United States was forced into the very colonial measures which it had always condemned. But it made two exceptions. Former colonial policy made colonies profitable by taxing their inhabitants ; the United States exploited Alaska through its resources. Formerly the home government extorted profits from the colony ; the United States permitted corporate organizations to do it.^ As a result of this first experiment in farming out a colony, the United States now possesses a ''squeezed orange" in Alaska; the great industries like the salmon fisheries, the sea otter and seal fisheries, wantonly exhausted or in the hands of enriched corporations ; the natives starving or de- stroyed through intemperate habits which the govern- ment is impotent to hinder ; ^ the colony frequently used as a refuge for carpet-baggers and disappointed candidates for better places ; and the control of the ^ It is impossible to consider the manner in which this thirty-year monopoly of the seal fisheries was forced through Congress in 1870 without suspicion that undue influence was used. Propositions to advertise for bids, to lessen the period, etc., were not listened to. The clause, "with due regard for the parties already engaged in the trade," gave advantage to the company which had already bought up the buildings of the former Russian Company. Monop- oly under government privilege was as objectionable in 1870 as in the case of the East India Tea Company in 1770. Only the Alaskans were not British colonists. They could not revolt. ^ Until 1884 Alaska was held under a military rule, notwith- standing the pledge of citizenship given to Russia, and regard- less of the attention called to it in the messages of different presidents. It was to the interest of the controlling company to prevent immigration by suppressing information, and to the admin- istrations to head off possible criticism. Occasionally a visitor like President Jordan, of Leland Stanford University (in the Atlantic Monthly for November, 1898), has ventured to tell the truth about Alaska. The past history of this first United States colony will probably lie buried under the common pass- word in that distant country, " No one comes to Alaska for his health." 438 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE country so dispersed among the various departments of the national government that no one has sufficient power or responsibility. The reforms recently pro- posed are thirty years too late. CHAPTER XXXVI SUDDEN EXPANSION OF THE COLONIAL SYSTEM At the time of the purchase of Ahiska, a rise of expansion fever became manifest. The war passion had not yet subsided. President Johnson, in his message to Congress in 1867, expressed his belief that " the West Indies naturally gravitate to and may be expected ultimately to be absorbed by the continental states, including our OAvn." He would leave this to "the process of natural political gravitation," but in the meantime, by a treaty with the king of Den- mark, he attempted to purchase two of the Virgin Islands as coaling stations. Owing to the Reconstruc- tion difficulty, his action was not ratified by the Senate. Later President Grant endeavored to secure the consent of the Senate to the annexation of the island of Santo Domingo after its inhabitants had given consent, but the fear that private instead of public interests would be benefited prevented its rati- fication. At another time it was proposed in Con- gress to extend a protectorate over both Santo Domingo and Hayti.^ The old anti-Spanish feeling did not fail to appear during this excitement. Spain 1 It is impossible to separate the question of these West India Islands from that of "civil rights." In the excitement of giving citizenship to the American negro, many people persuaded them- selves into the belief that the world was ready for self-government. There was also undoubtedly a wish to impose even more colored citizens upon the pow^erless southerners who objected to the Four- teenth Amendment. 439 440 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE had long since been elbowed off the entire western hemisphere, save the two West India islands of Cuba and Porto Rico. She had refused flatly to sell these to the United States at the time of the Florida pur- chase, and the refusal was repeated during Polk's administration. Still further alarmed by the Ostend Manifesto,^ she watched with apprehension the dispo- sition of the United States to grant belligerent rights to tlie Cubans in their revolution in 1868. The seizure in the islands of the estates of suspected persons, involving the property of many American citizens, and the subsequent incident of the Virginius intensified the anti-Spanish feeling.^ However, Spain consented to pay damages, and the temporary sup- pression of the rebellion, together with her promise to reform her Cuban control, postponed the final issue of the long-standing case between the American and the Spaniard. The unusual industrial expansion w^iich followed the period of reconstruction, and the opening of the south as a new field for investments, quieted the demands of capital and allayed for the time the ter- ritorial expansion feeling. But colonial sentiment was simply awaiting precipitation. The first disturb- ing event occurred on the Pacific side after a quarter of a century of quiet. Since 1825 the Sandwich Islands ^ The United States ministers to Spain, Great Britain, and France met at Ostend, Belgium, and volunteered an opinion that the United States would be warranted in seizing Cuba unless Spain agreed to sell it. The proposition was violently opposed by the anti-slavery element in America. ^The Virginius, a vessel supposed to be bound for Cuba under the United States flag, was captured by the Spanish, and a number of the officers and men executed. SUDDEN EXPANSION OF THE COLONIAL SYSTEM 441 had been headquarters for American whale fishermen in the Pacific. Boston capital opened a trading house, imported sheep, and developed the native resources. By 1897 nearly two hundred and fifty thousand tons of sugar, the entire exportation, were sent to the United States. American missionaries had entered with American trade. At intervals presidential mes- sages called the attention of Congress to the growing American investments and the necessity of closer political relations. The native king, Kalakaua, was allowed to remain undisturbed on his throne, but every effort for several years to secure the ratification of a treat}^ with him was defeated in the Senate by the sugar interests in America. At last, in 1875, the king visited the United States in person, and a treaty was effected which gave a monopoly to American trade. The colony was gradually coming in. The cession of a harbor for coaling purposes was followed in 1887 by the land- ing of marines from a United States man-of-war to protect the king against some insurgents. The insur- rection had been caused by a new constitution pro- mulgated by the king at the instigation of the resident whites. The death of the king in 1891 and the accession of his sister, precipitated a collision between American and British interests.^ These were represented ultimately by a Committee of Public Safety and the queen, and the abdication of the latter was reluctantly secured. During this time American marines were landed and a protectorate declared ^ The ascendency of the Americans is set forth by Edmund Janes Carpenter in "The American in Hawaii." ,LJ 442 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE under the American flag. An annexation treaty fol- lowed of course, but before adoption the whole ques- tion became involved in American politics, and arraigned the two great parties on the new lines they occupy on the question at the present day. The Republican party, as the descendant of Hamil- ton, would naturally be in favor of centralization and the administration of outlying territory from the home office. Being the party of large invested interests, it would find them best subserved as a whole by colonial opportunities and new fields for exploitation. Then, too, being a party led by reason rather than party traditions, it could the more readily adapt itself to new conditions. Its only difficulty would be found in adjusting to a colonial system the protective tariff policy to which it stands pledged.^ The Democratic party, on the other hand, as the party of the individual and the defender of his rights, must look with disfavor upon any form of government which works injustice to any man, and proceeds without the consent of the governed. Bound by the traditions of the past, it would view with repugnance any departure from the early established principles of self-government. It Is antagonistic to the preponder- ance of invested intel^ests, and to legislation in tlieir ^ In the session of Congress which closed in June, 1900, a shrewd leader of this party inventea a theory that the Constitution does not extend to the colonies, but only to the mainland. In that waj' his party was able to vote the f^rst tariff on one of the new posses- sions. If the people support this doctrine, the American colo- nies are completely at the mercy of the home government. The revolting American colonists of the days of 1776 based their claims upon the unwritten English constitution. Had they not been under the protection of that constitution, they must have been veritable slaves. SUDDEN EXPANSION OF THE COLONIAL SYSTEM 443 behalf. Pledged to retrenchment of expenses and all possible reduction of taxes, it would oppose the burden of an army and navy adequate to a colonial system. Such would naturally be the positions of the two parties on the question of territorial expansion. Yet every addition of territory — Louisiana, the Floridas, Texas, Oregon, California, and Alaska, has been accomplished under Democratic administrations or under men at one time affiliated with that party. The attitude of President Cleveland toward Hawaii seemed to foreshadow the reversal of parties and the return to their natural principles which took place in the campaign of 1900. The renewed contest over Hawaii was most unequal, and, as has always been the case, expansion won. The opposition is ever swept off its feet by the appeal to "patriotism," and the old cry that "if we don't do it some one else will." It was England's concern over the absorption of Hawaii which at last brought about that event under a Republican admin- istration, after having been defeated by a Democratic president. This annexation of Hawaii in July, 1898, had been hastened by an incident connected with another part of the Pacific ocean, which showed the necessity for more places of refuge. In order to damage the enemy, an American fleet had sailed into and occupied a bay in the Philippine Islands on the Asiatic side of the ocean. This in turn was brought about by the condi- tion of affairs in a Spanish island on the other side of the American continent. In such manner do events 444 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE hasten, when prepared for by a long train of causes, powerful though unforeseen. The Cubans had again revolted against Spanish rule, and the United States had at last interfered. In this, as in former cases, it is impossible to separate disinterested motives from the selfishness of trade. The American people as a whole, antagonistic by inheritance to Spanish rule, although not knowing why, were moved by the highest motives in thus meddling in a neighbor's quarrels. It can not be doubted that American investors, who saw their * From a photograph by Dr. C. F. Millspaugh, the Field Museum, Chicago. SUDDEN EXPANSION OF THE COLONIAL SYSTEM 445 Cubuii property deteriorating under the apparently endless warfare, and American merchants and manu- facturers, who were deprived of the former Cuban trade, assisted in bringing about intervention/ From a larger point of view the loss of an American man-of-war in a Spanish harbor was but the moving incident in a series. The time was ripe for elbowing the Spaniard from the hemisphere, as he had been elbowed from the continent. Only in the light of history can one comprehend the sudden outburst of anti- Spanish rage ; the impulse which led a fair- minded people, noted for fair dealing, to accuse another nation of such a dastardly deed, and to be influenced into a declaration of war on the unproved charge. The mass of the people was not led by cupidity in entering upon this war, and even the government officials in the beginning were not moved by sordid purposes. But no sooner had peace come, and the nation found itself with three new possessions on hand, than the old land-hunger began to assert itself. The prospect of new fields for invest- ment of capital, and new markets for manufactured products, was too tempting, and American interests began to clamor in the legislative halls. The other moving factor in government, the people, was appeased by the old-time appeal to "patriotism." The flag must never be hauled down. Also the old-time excuse, "unless we take them some one else will," was brought out and its power proved undiminished. ^ In 1892, just before the last insurrection, the American trade with Cuba reached its highest point, 1103,310,600; but in three years of irregular warfare it fell a total of §69,000,000. 446 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE But the chief obstacle to carrying out the first high ideals of the people was the one ever present in deal- ing with inferior races — their unfitness for self-govern- ment. It was therefore easy to argue ourselves into the belief that our ' ' duty" and responsibility demanded a retention of the is- lands until ready for self-government. Yet centuries of lack of training for citizenship can not be overcome by years or even dec- ades of training. It is a work of evolution.. In the meantime, the provinces are to all intents and purposes' colonies, and can be used for the benefit of the country holding them, if such sordid motives prevail/ As a result of this territorial expansion and under these complications, the United States finds itself plunged still deeper into a colonial system. It sud- denly becomes aware of the new surroundings into which it has been slowly drifting for a quarter of a ii^ TIIK EXPANSION OF THK AMERICAN 'The term "colonial" is sometimes very incorrectly applied to the western territories before they become states of the United States. They are hot colonies, but contiguous regions held in trust until they are placed on an equality with their rulers. The presence of Americans always promises their ultimate predominance. But in the expansions over outlying territory, beginning with Alaska, this prospect is rendered impossible for decades to come, owing to geographical, racial, and climatic conditions. Thej^ are true colo- ijies, although this word will be very sparingly used at first. SUDDEN EXPANSION OF THE COLONIAL SYSTEM 447 century.^ It finds that a new world does not make new inhabitants ; that the impulses which moved men in the past are still powerful ; that the weak must continue to give way to the strong. This new awakening must be a blow to those who supposed that the isolation which marked the youth of the United States could continue ; that this exclusion during apprenticeship meant a "manifest destiny" varying from that of other peoples ; that we were intended by some special dispensation of Provi- dence to avoid the cupidity, the conquests, the accom- panying cruelties of the onward march of that relative thing we call civilization. Having reached our majority, we see our "plain duty" to take part in the world's counsels simply because men have hitherto always done so. To avoid it would mean selfishness, egotism, and possibly disintegration. We can not escape it because we have no desire to escape it. We shall cooperate in the common duty of imposing upon others a civilization bearing the only absolute and immutable criterion of right— its survival over others. ^ It is impossible as yet to grasp fully the immensity of the American colonial possessions. The extent and population of the several parts are thus estimated : Square Miles. Population. Alaska ..,„..... 521,409 82,053 Hawaii 6,470 109,020 I?hilippines ........ 114,356 8,025,000 Porto Rico 3,368 813,937 Cuba .......... 43,319 1,631,687 688,922 10,611,690 The territory is nearly double that of the original thirteen states; the population is greater than that of the whole United States in 1820. The retention of Cuba in the above table is prophecy based on human nature. 0) 448 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE And civilization will be found kind to that generation of inferiors which shall eventually survive although many intervening ones must perish. To harness the savage living in the stone age to the car of civilization, in the steam age was death to the savage ; but it meant a higher life for those of his posterity who endured. To the student of the larger politics the culminating point in the territorial expansion of the American people, made possible by their social expansion, is found in the spread of English speech.^ The English of the Americans has reached Asia to meet the English of the parent country coming from the opposite direction. It means the beginning of world division on lines of language and trade if not entirely on race affiliations. Having thus entered on the new era of world politics,^ the inherited land-hunger of the Saxon will manifest itself more and more and make cooperation with the parent country easier. It is safe to say that the United States will be in at the geographical, or, what is usually the first stage, the commercial, division of China. She has sufficient damage claims upon Tur- ^ key to be interested there. In Africa alone of the ^ ^ This is illustrated by the map on the opposite page based on ^- Demolin's "Anglo-Saxon Superiority." ^;: "^A Washington, D. C, newspaper in 1867 said: "So fixed is the feeling in behalf of territorial expansio'nin'the national heart that it is not to be questioned or disputed ; and any party or set of men putting themselves in opposition to tiiis irresistible current of opin- __il ion must go under." Time has verified the truth of the prediction. When Senator Hoar, of Massachusetts, in April, 1900, made a plea "^r for the republic of the fathers, for the principles upon which the ^ government was founded, for the absolute equality of the brown ^ man as well as the white, for a government resting on the consent (. of the governed, he was heard only with the tolerance which his age and his past record commanded. His words fell on a cold and unresponsive audience. He was speaking the language of the abandoned past. SUDDEN EXPAT^SION OF THE COLONIAL SYSTEM 449 450 THE EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE fore-doomed countries, she has as yet no interest but it may come as unexpectedly as have some in the past. A study of the map of the world whereon is depicted the land possessed by and that threatened by the people of English S23eech is warrant for a prophecy of the coming reign of that language and the people using it. The only geographical competitor is Russia. That the United States will succeed in every respect in this new role no one expects. She has not suc- ceeded in governing perfectly her continental home possessions. Indeed that a republic with its frequent change of administrations and petty officials, with its necessarily large proportion of incompetent servants, with its constant danger from spoils seekers and patriots for revenue, with its invested interests seek- ing a colonial market, that such a government is at all fitted for holding colonies has not yet been proved. But, as was said in the beginning, the success of the past is the hope of the future. INDEX Abolitionists, The, 361, 404-409. Adams, John, 59, 182, 184. Adams, Mrs. John, 183. Adams, John Quincy, 292, 301. African Coast, Explorations along the, 22. Alamo, The, 318. Alaska, Purchase of, 429-438. Albion, Illinois, 247. Alcott, A. Bronson, 295. Alexandria, Virginia, 177. Alien and Sedition Laws, 249. Alien Peoples in the English Colonies, 36. Alleghanies, First Roads across the, 88. Amana Community, Iowa, 388. Ambrister, Robert, 218. America, Early Portion of, 31. American Anti-Slavery Society, 407. American Bottom, The, 224. American Desert, The, 343. American People, Formation of the, 12. American, The, as a New Type, 47. Americans in Spanish Louisiana, 193. Amis, Thomas, and the Spanish, 189. Amusements, Colonial, 53. Annexation of the Floridas, 217. Arbuthnot, Alexander 218. Arkansas Territory, 209, 328. Armada. The Spanish, Destruc- tion of, 32. Articles of Confederation, Fail- ure of, 86, 255. Ashburton Treaty, The, 306. Ashe, Thomas, 293. Astor, John Jacob, 303. Asylum, Pennsylvania, 378. Atchison, General, 359. Atchison Town Company, 357. Austin, Moses, 313. Austin, Stephen, 313, Balloon, The, 167, 168. Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, 275. Baltimore & Potomac Canal, 378. Baptists, The, 166. Barlow, Joel, and the Scioto Company, 129. Baton Rouge, Louisiana, 216. Beissel (Beizel), Conrad, 378. Bennett, James Gordon, 296, 299. Benton, Thomas H., 367. Bering, Vitus, 429. Bethleliem, Pennsylvania, 381. "Biglow Papers," The, 323. Bimeler (Baumeler), Joseph, 384. Birkbeck, Morris, 392. Black Swamp, The, 236, 253, 268. Blanchard, the Aeronaut, 168. Blennerhasset, Harman, 214, 215. Boatmen, Ohio River, 140-146. Boone, Daniel, 93, 96, 99, 193. Boonesborougli, Kentucky, Founded, 99. "Border Ruffians," 359. Boundaries, National, of 1783, 78. Boundary Line, The Southwest- ern, expands, 188. Boundary of Texas, 320-323. Bounty Lands, 108. Bowie, James, 318. Braddock Road, 89, 124, 147. Breck, Rev., Preaches at Mari- etta, 123. Bridgewater, Duke of, and Ca- nals, 264. Brisbane, Albert, 397. British Troops in American Forts, 127. Brook Farm Community, 396. 451 452 INDEX Brown, John, 360, 408. Bryant, William CuUen, 358. Buckeye, The, 154. Buffalo, The, 94, 155, 239. Burns, David, 180. Burr's Expedition, 214, 312, 314. Cabet, Etienne, 393. Cable, The Atlantic, 430, 431. Cabot, John, Exj^lorations of, 29. Cabot, Sebastian, Explorations of, 30. Cabral Gains Land for Portugal, 30. Cahokia, 132, 133, 206. Cairo, Illinois, 273. Calhoun, John C, 249. California, Discovery of Gold in, 336-351, 363, 416. California, Conquest of, 324, 335. California, Constitutional Con- vention of, 348. Calk, William, Extract from Journal of, 103. Camp Meetings, 402, 403. Campus Martins, at Marietta, 121, 123. Canada, Boundary with, 80. Canals in the United States, 264- 269. Capital, The National, 175. Cathay, Influence of, 20. Cartier, Jacques, Voyages of, 30. Carroll, Charles, of Carrollton, 275, 276. Carroll, Daniel, 177. Cass, Lewis, 353. Celoron's plates, 74. Central Pacific Railroad, 368, 372. "Ceresco" communit5^ 398. Channing, William Ellery, 295, 395, 397. Chicago, 236, 273. 282, 286, 289, 363, 367. Chillicothe, Ohio, 126. China, Attractions of, 20. China, The Partition of, 448. Chouteau House, St. Louis, 223. Church, The Colonial, 50. Church and State, Divorce of, 165, 423. Cincinnati, 125, 141, 145, 251. Cities, Colonial, 67, , > Cities, Growth of, 426-428. -<^ Claiborne, Gov., 208. Clark, George Rogers, 79, 132, 146, 189, 226. Clark, Captain William, 212, 303. Clay, Henry, 136, 264, 312. Cleaveland, Moses, 128, 249. Cleveland, Ohio, 128, 355. "Clermont," The, 172, 272. Climate, Influences of, on Ex- pansion, 10. Clinton, DeWitt, 267 268. Coal in Western Pennsylvania, 139. Coahuila and Texas, State of, 321. Cobbett, William, 182, 248. Colleges, Early, 159-165. Colonial Amusements, 53. Colonial Church, 50. Colonial Executions, 52. Colonial Newspapers, 60. Colonial Post-office, 64. Colonial Schools, 62. Colonia' Svstem of the United States, 429-450. Colonization, Influence of, in Expansion, 17. Colonization Society, The Amer- ican, 405. Columbia, District of, 179. Columbia River, 211, 212, 303, 307, 308. Columbus, Ohio, Founding of, 125. Columbus, Bartholomew, 22. Columbus, First Voyage of, 26. Columbus, Portraits of, 29. Columbus, Religious Zeal of, 26. Colonies, English, Life in the, 48. Colonies, English, Population of the, 48. Communities in America, 376- 401. Communication and Union, 257. Compromise, The Missouri, 311. Conestoga Wagon, 243. Congregationalists, 166. ''Congress Lands," 115. INDEX 453 Congress Meets in Washington, 180. Connecticut Reserve, 114, 128. Connecticut Land Company, 128. Conocoheague Creek, 176. Constitutionality of Louisiana Purchase, 200. Cooper, Peter, 276. Cotton Gin, The, 173. Cortez, 324. County System in Northwest Territory, 122. Coureurs de Bois, 233, 239. Credit Mobilier, 372. Crockett, David, 318. Crusades, Beginnings of the, 18, 19. Cuba, Taking Possession of, 444- 450. Cuba, The Ten Years' War in, 440. Cumberland Gap, The, 95. Cumberland National Road, 148, 259-264. Cutler, Manasseh, 110, 120, 123, 129, 152, 159, 186. Curtis, George William, 396, 397. Dana, Charles A., 396, 397. Dana, Richard Henry, 326. Danish Islands, Negotiations for, 439. Danville, Kentucky, Founded, 99. Danville, Kentucky, Political Club, 101. Darkness, the Sea of, Perils of, 23. Davenport, Iowa, 364. Delaware and the Swedes, 39. Democracy, Growth of, 419. Detroit, 132, 233, 251, 273. "Dial," The, 395. Diaz, Bartholomew, 22. Dickens, Charles, Quoted, 248. Direction, Changes of, in Mi- gration, 9. Dismal Swamp Canal, 265. District of Columbia Laid Out, 177. Domain, National, in 1783, 83. Douglas, Stephen A., 353, 354. Dubuque, Julien, 286. Dunkers in America, 378. "Dutch Flat Swindle," 369. Dutch Settlements in North America, 36. Dyer, Harrison Gray, 297. Eastern Branch of the Potomac, 176. Eben-Ezer Community, 387. Economy, Pennsylvania, 383. Editor, The Colonial, 64 Education, Public, in America, 422. Edwards, Jonathan, 40. ElHcott, Andrew, 179, 191. Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 295, 396. Emigrant Aid Societies, 356-363. Emigrants to America, Suffering of, 41. England and the Oregon Coun- try, 301-309. English Colonies, Life in the, 48. English Criticism of America, 292. English, Discoveries of, in America, 29. English Speech, The Spread of, 448-450. Ephrata Community, 378. Episcopal Church, The, 166. Erie Canal, The, 267, 268 354 Erie Railroad, The, 284. European Life in the Fifteenth Centurv. 17. Evans, Oliver, 274. Expansion, Territorial — Louis- iana, 193; Floridas, 217; Texas, 310; California, 324; Oregon, 301; Alaska, 429; Hawaii, 440; Philippines, 443; Porto Rico, 445 ; Cuba, 444. Expansion, American, on the Western Side, 15. Expansion Necessary to Prog- ress, 9. Expansion, The First American Colonial, 435-438. Expansion, Political Parties on, 443. Expansion Questions Settled, 202. Executions, Colonial, 52. r 454 INDEX Fairfax, Lord, 90. Falls of the Ohio, 145. Faneuil, Peter, 45. Fashion, Extravagance of, 185. "Federal Hall," New York City, 175. Fearon, Henry Bradshaw, 293. Fifteenth Century, European Life in the, 17. "Fifty-four-forty or Fight," 308. Filson Club of Louisville, 97, 103. Filson, John, and Kentucky, 102. Fire Companies, Colonial, 67. "Fire Lands" in Northwest Ter- ritory, 114, 128. Fitch's Boat, 171, 173, 270. Flint, Rev. Timothy, 147, 263. Flint River, 190. Floridas, Boundary of, 1783, 83, 188. Floridas, The, Annexed, 217, 219, 312, 320. Floridas, The, Invaded by Amer- icans, 215. Flower, George, 247. Foreign Settlements, 247. Foreigners in America, 36, 424- 426. Fort Hall, 304, 305, 343. Fort Kearny, 311. Fort Laramie, 311. Fort Leavenworth, 351, 358. Fort Stephens, 191. Fort Wayne, Indiana, 227. Forts, American, Retained by British, 127. Forts in the Northwest Terri- tory, 116. Forts"^ of the French, 74. Fortunes in the Colonies, 55. "Forty-niners," 339, 348. Fourierism, 397-401. France Acquires Louisiana, 193. France and the Mississippi Val- ley, 69. France on the Northwest Coast, 301. Francis, Joseph, 421. Frankfort, Kentucky, State House at, 100. Franklin, Advertisement of, 56. Franklin, Independent State of, 102. Franklin, Kansas, 361. Free-Soil Party, 408. Fremont, John C, 330-332, 408. French, Discoveries of, in Amer> ica, 30. French Forts, 74. "French Grant," The, 131. French in the English Colonies, 45. French, in the West, Assimila- tion of the, 220. French in the Illinois Country, 131-134. French-Indian War, 75. Frencli Names in the Middle West, 228. French Refugees in America, 378. French routes in the West, 72. Friends opposed to Slaverj^ 404. Frontier, Greelev on the, 364. Frontier, Evolution of the, 238. Fuller, Margaret, 395, 396, 397. Fulton and the Steamboat, 172, 270. "Gadsden Purchase,** The. 332. Gale, George W., 354. Galena and Chicago Union Rail- road, 289. Galena, Illinois, 288. Galesburg, Illinois. 354-356. Gallatin, Albert, 254, 266. Gallipolis Founded b}^ French, 129-131, 225. Garrison, William Lloyd, 406- 409. "Genius of Universal Emancipa- tion,*' 405. Georgia, Territory of, 217. German Migration to New York, 44. Germans, Migration of, to Penn- sylvania, 40. Germans, Pennslyvania, De- scription of, 43. "Girdled Road,*' The. 128. Goddard, Captain, in St. Louis, 206. Gold Coast, Discoveries along the, 21. INDEX 455 Gold Discovered in California, 336-351, 303, 416. Goose Creek, 144. ''Graham Flour," 404. Grant, President, 439. Gray, Captain Robert, 211. Great Falls of the Potomac, 91. Great Lakes, Neutrality of, 81. Great Salt Lake, 413. Great Western Railroad, 280. Greeley, Horace, 296, 358, 364, 397, 398, 417. Grimke sisters, The, 409. Gulf Possessions, Rounding Out the, 211. Hale, Edward Everett, 358. Hamilton, Alexander, 176, 199, 213. Harmar, Fort, 116. 120, 123. Harmar, General, 133. "Harmonists,"- The, 38'2-384, 389. Harmony, Pennslyvania, 382. Harrison, Fort, Indiana, 227. Harrison, William Henry, 125, 253. Harrodsburg, Kentucky, Found- ed, 98. Harvard University, 161. Harte, Bret, 371. Hawaii, Annexation of, 440-443. ''Hawkeve," 363. Hawthorne, Nathaniel, 295, 396. Hayne, Robert Y., 250. Hayti, Insurrection in, 195. Henderson Organizes Transyl- vania, 98. Henry, Joseph, 297. Henrj^ Prince, of Portugal, 21. Higginson, Thos. Went worth, 358. Highwavs, Locating, in Public Lands" 108. Hispaniola Lost by Spain, 35. Hoar, George F., 448. Holland, Michigan, 247. Holmes, Oliver Wendell, 161, 430. Homestead Act, 373, 374. Honolulu, 338. Houston, Samuel, 317, 367. Hudson Bay Company, 302-309. Hudson, Henry, Adventures of, 36. Huguenots in America, 45. Huntington, Collis P. , 368. Hutchins, Thomas, U. S. Geog- rapher, 105. "Icarians," The, 393. Illinois Canals, 268. Illinois Central Railroad, 373. Illinois, Founding of Galesburg, 354-356. Illinois, Railroad Craze of, 282. Illinois "Regulators," 412. Illinois, The French in, 132, 220. Immigration in America, 424-426. Inclined Planes, 244. Independence, Missouri, 328, 341, 351. Indiana Canals, 268. Indiana, Railroad Craze of, 284. Indiana, Settlement of, 228. Indians, Interest in the, 70. Individual, The Rights of the, 420. Inquisitiveness of the Colonists, 58. "Inspirationists," The True, 388. Internal Improvements, 256. Inventions, American, 421. Inventions, Early, 169. Iowa, The Making of, 363. Irrigation, Beginning of, 415, Irving, Washington, 294. Isthmus of Panama, 339, 340, 347, 349, 367. Italy Gained No Possessions, 30. Jackson, Gen. Andrew, in Flor- ida, 218. Jackson, President Andrew, 264, 318, 4'20. Jamaica Lost by Spain, 35. Japan, Distance to, 25. Jefferson on Louisiana, 194-210. Jefferson, Thomas, 65, 176, 180, 184, 212, 215, 420. "Jerks," The, 49, 402. Johnson, Andrew, 434, 439. Kalakaua, David, 441. Kanawha Salt, 145, 226. 456 INDEX Kankakee River, 228. Kansas and Nebraska, 351-363, 368. Kansas, First Railroad in, 365. Kaskaskia, 132, 133. Kearny, Stephen W., 330, 332, 416. Kentucky, Beginnings of, 87. Kentucky, Celebration of the Fourth of July in, 101. Kentucky, Pioneer Hardships in, 103. Kenyon College, 160. "King Strang," 413. "Knickerbockers," The, 39, 294. Knox College, Illinois, 354-356. Knox, Mrs., Headdress of, 186. Knoxville, Tennessee, 97. "Labadists" in America, 377. Lafayette, Visit of, 290-292. Lake of the Woods, 302. Larcora, Lucy. 358. Latter Day Saints, 410-416. Laussat in New Orleans, 196, 204. Lawrence, Kansas, 357, 360, 361. Laws, General, of Expansion, 13. Laws of Migration in the United States, 234. Lead Mines in Illinois, 286-289. Leaden Plates Buried by French, 75. Leavenworth, Kansas, 360. Lee, "Mother" Ann, 379. Lee, Rev. Jason, 305. L' Enfant, Major, 179. Lewis, Meriwether, 212, 303. "Liberator," The, 406. Liberty Party, 408. Library of Congress, 423. Licking River, 125. Life Car, The, 421. Lighthouses, Government, 255. Limestone, Kentucky, 100, 116, 124, 125, 145. Lincoln, Abraham, 322, 420. Livingston, Robert R., 172, 194 Log City, Illinois, 255. "Log Rolling," 371. Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth, 296. Losantiville, 125. Louisiana, District of, 207. Louisiana Explored, 213. Louisiana Parishes, The, 217. Louisiana Purchase, The, 193- 210, 311, 320, 433. Louisiana Purchase, Opposition to, 201. Louisville, Kentucky, 97, 100, 146, 226, 272. Lowell, James Russell, 323. Lundy, Benjamin, 314, 405, 406. Macadam, John Loudon, 262. Mackenzie, Sir Alexander, 211, 302. Madison, James, 189, 312. Mail Routes, Early, 250. Manchester, Founding of, 125. "Manifest Destiny," 333. Maple Sugar, 154. Marbois Sells Louisiana, 196. Marco Polo and China, 24. Marietta, Ohio, 120, 121, 122, 126, 127, 134, 140, 145, 272. Marryat, Captain, 294. Marshall, James Wilson, 336. Marshall, John, 292. Martineau, Harriet, 294. Marquette, Father, 132. Massie, Nathaniel, 125, 126, McCulloch's Leap, 144. Mecklenburg "Declaration," 46. Mennonites, 377. Methodists, The, 166. Mexican War, The, 321-323, 339, 416. Mexico, Invasions of, 212, 311, 312. Mexico, Revolt from Spain, 312. Miami City, 125. Miami University, 160, 161. Michigan Central Railroad, 285. Michigan, Proposed Canals in, 269. Michigan, Railroad Craze of , 284. Michigan Southern Railroad, 285. Migration in the U. S. , Laws of, 234. Military Roads, 252-255. Millennial Church (Shakers), 380. Mills in Pioneer Days, 230. INDEX 45? Minuit, Peter, and the Swedes, 39. Mississiiipi River, American Set- tlers on the, 281. Mississippi River, Navigation of the, 188, 231, 272. Mississippi Valley, Contest for the, 69. Missouri Compromise, 311, 352, 353, 356. Missouri, Railroad Craze of, 284. Missouri River, 212. Monterey, California, 327, 329, 330, 338. Montgolfiers, The, 167. Monroe Doctrine, The, 218. Monroe, James, 195, 290. Moore, Tom, 183. Moors, Conquered by Spain, 32. Moravians, 381. More, Sir Thomas, 376. Moriscos, Spain Expels the, 34. Mormons, 334, 336, 371, 393, 410- 416. ^ Morris, Robert, 182, 265. Morse, S. F. B., 297, 298. Mount Pleasant, Iowa, 356, 361. Mount Pleasant, Ohio, 405. Movement of the People, 127. Muskingum River, 110, 120, 121. Names, French, in the Middle West, 228. Napoleon, 194, 216. Nashoba Community, 391. Nashville, Tennessee, 97. National Boundaries of 1783, 78. Nauvoo, Illinois, 393, 411, 412. Nebraska and Kansas, 351-363, 364, 368. Netherlanders Settle in North America, 37. Netherlands, Spanish Persecu- tion in the, 32. New Albion, Illinois, 392. New Harmony, Indiana, 383, 390. New Helvetia, 327, 336. New Jersey, Named, 38. New Orleans, 146, 189, 190, 193, 196, 210, 220, 231, 234, 235, 266, 271, 272, 290. New Orleans, Spanish Adminis- tration, 221. New Rochelle, New York, Settle- ment of, 45. Newspapers after the Revolu- tion, 167. Newspapers in the Colonies, 60. Newspapers, Middle Period of, 296. New York Central Railroad, 284. New York, Dutch in, 37. New York, Germans in, 44. New York, Routes across, 127. North Carolina Cedes Lands, 192. Northwest Territory, Journeying to the, 135. Northwest Territory, Ordinance of the. 111. Northwest Territory Organized, 105, 118, 192. Noyes, John Humphrey, 394. Nueces River, 321, 322 OberUn College, 160. Officers, Colonial, 67. Ogden, Utah, 371. Omaha, Nebraska, 352, 369, 371. Ohio Canal System, 268. "Ohio City," 281. Ohio Company, 88. Ohio Company of Associates, 110, 129. Ohio, Forming the State of, 135. Ohio, Mixed Population of, 127. Ohio, Railroad Craze of, 283. Ohio River Boats, 140-146. Ohio University, 159, 160. Ohio Valley, Pioneer Life in, 149. Oneida Community, The, 395. Opossum, The 152. "Oracta Amphibolis," 274. Ordinance of 1787, 85, 114. Oregon, 329, 331, 338. Oregon Expansion, The, 301- 809. Oregon Trail, The, 307, 341, 345. Orleans, Territory of, 207. Osawatomie (Ossawatomie) , 361, 408. Oskaloosa, Iowa, 363. Ostend Manifesto, The, 440. 458 INDEX Otis, James, and the Peace of 1763, 76. Owen, Robert, 383, 389-393. Pacific Railways, 366-372, 416, 429. Palatines in New York, 44. Palmerston, Lord, 330. Palos, Columbus Sails from, 27. Pamphlets Issued by William Penn, 42. Panama, Isthmus of, 339, 340, 347, 349. "Pantisocracy,'' 376. Parkman, Francis, 343. Parsons, General, and the Ohio Company, 109, 119, 123. Parties, Political, on Expansion, 442. Pastorius, Francis Daniel, 43, 376. Patents, First Issued, 174. Paternalism in Government, 260. Penn, William, Advertises Penn- sylvania, 42. Pennsylvania Germans, Descrip- tion of, 43. Peniisylvania Railroad, 285. People, Political Influence of the. 13. Peoria, Illinois, 363. "Perfectionists," The, 394. Peter the Hermit, 18. Phalansteries, Fourier's, 398-401. Philadelphia, 67, 176. Philippines, The, 443. Phillips, Wendell, 408. Pietists in America, 377. Pike, Zebulon, 212. "Pike's Peak or Bust," 363. Pinckney, Tliomas, 190. Pitt, Fort, 138. Pittsburg, Pennsvlvania, 124, 136-139, 141, 235, 251, 272, 292, 383. Pioneer Hardships in Kentucky, 103. Pioneer Life in the Ohio Val- ley, 149. "Pioneer"* Locomotive, 289. Pioneer Migration, 239-248. Plains, Crossing the, 341-343. Plank Roads, 269. Platte County Association, 357. Polk, James K., 298, 320, 322, 338, 416. Political Parties, Early, 199, 420. Political Parties on Expansion, 442. Ponce de Leon, 376. Polo, Marco, and China, 24. Population of the English Colo- nies, 48. Population, Spread of, 234. Portage Railroad, The, 244. Portages in the Mississippi Val- lev, 73. Portsmouth, Ohio, 145, 355. Portugal, Share of, in Western World, 30. Post Routes. 250. Post-office, The Colonial, 64. Potomac Navigation Company, 92. Potomac River, 90, 175, 235, 259. Pre-emption Act, 373. Princeton University, 165. Presbyterian Church, 166. President's Mansion. The, 183. Provincialism, American, 292. Public Domain Created, 85. Public Land Sales, 117, 375. Public Land Svstem, Organiza- tion of the, 104.^ Public Lands given to enter- prises, 269, 369, 373, 374, 375. Pullman, Illinois, 428. Putnam, Rufus, 120. Quakers, Influence of, in Migra- tion, 42. Quakers, Settlements of, in Penn- sylvania, 44. Quebec Act, 79. Railroad Consolidation, 284. Railroad Craze, The, of 1835, 280-284. Railroad in Kansas, 365. Railroad, Panama, 349, 350. Railroads, Beginnings of, 274. Railroads, First System of Con- struction of, 278. Railroads Versus Canals, 278. INDEX 459 Railway, A Transcontinental, 866-372. Rapp, George, 882. Raymond, Henry J. 296. Reforms and Reformers, Amer- ican, 402. Reforms, Greely on, 418. Religious Freedom in America, 165, 428. Religious Zeal of Columbus, 26. Republic of Texas, 818-320. Revere, Paul, 46. Revivals, in America, 49, 402. Revolutionary War, End of the, 83. Rio Grande, The, 321, 322. Ripon, Wisconsin, 398. Road Laws, Colonial, 257. Roads, Military, 252. Roads, Plank, 269. Roads, Post, 250. Roman Catholics, The, 166. Rotterdam, Embarkation from, 41. Rousseau, Colonel, in Alaska, 435. Routes, French, in the Missis- sippi Valley, 73. Routes Proposed for Pacific Rail- way, 367. Rumsey's Boat, 170. Rush, Dr., on American Extrav- agance, 185. Russia as a Competitor, 450. Russia on the Northwest Coast, 301, 429. Russia Sells Alaska, 429-438. Russian American Fur Company, 429, 438. Sacramento, California, 827. Salt, Importance of , 145. Salt Mountain, Louisiana, 208. Sandwich Islands, 884. Sandwich Islands, Americans in, 440-443. San Diego, California, 324, 832. San Francisco, California, 825, 834, 337, 846, 847, 871. San Ildefonso, Treaty of, 198. San Jose, California, 837. Santa Anna, President, 818. Santa Barbara, California, 325. Santa Fe Trail, 328, 344, 345. Santo Domingo, Negotiations for, 489. Sargasso Sea, 27. Sargeant, Winthrop, 119. Saxe Weimer, Duke of, Visits America, 292. Schools, Colonial, 62. Scioto CompanJ^ 129. Scotch in xlmerica, 46. Scotch-Irish in the Colonies, 46. Sea of Darkness, Perils of the, 23. Seat of Government, The Na- tional, 175. Sensitiveness, American, 292. "Separatism" ' not American, 400, 417. "Separatists*' of Zoar, 884-387. "Seven Ranges," The, Laid off, 108. Sevier, John, in Tennessee, 102. Seward, William H., 856, 482. Shaker Communities, 379, 880. Shaw, Dr. Albert, 894. Shawneetown, 143, 227. Shippen, Dr., Clothing of , 186. Slavery and Freedom Contest, 310, 352-863. Slavery Introduced by Spain, 32. Slavery in Texas, 318, 819. Slavery in the Northwest Terri- tory, 231. Sloat, Commodore, 330, 831. Sluyter, Peter, 877. Smallpox, Inoculation for the, 66. Smith, Joseph, 411, 412. Smith, Rev. James, 193. "Snags and Sawyers," 272. Social Classes in the Colonies, 54. "Society of the Woman of the Wilderness," 377. South Bend, Indiana, 228. South Carolina Cedes Land, 192. South Carolina, First Railroad in, 275. South Pass in the Rocky Moun- tains, 348. Southwestern Boundary Line, Expansion of the, 188. 4G0 INDEX Spain in Cuba, 439-450. Spain Loses Hispaniola and Ja- maica, 85. Spain on the Northwest Coast, 301, 304. Spain Yields the Floridas, 218. Spanish Boundary Line of 1783, 82. Spanish Colonial Rule in Amer- ica, 34. Spanish Mexico Invaded, 213. Spanish on the Southern Border, 188. Spanish Rule in California, 324- 330. Spanish, Spread of, in America, 29. Spener, Philipp Jakob, 377. "Spoils" in Contracts, 372. Spotswood, Expedition of, 69. ''Squatter Sovereignty," 353. Stanford, Leland, 369. State Banks, 284. State Rights and the Union, 249. States, Jefferson's Proposed, 85. St. Clair, Arthur, Governor of Northwest Territory, 119, 122, 125, 133, 135. St. Clair, Voyage of the, 271. St. Joseph River, 228. St. Louis, Missouri, 193, 210, 212, 223, 226, 235, 262, 355, 363, 367. St. Mary's River, 190. Steamboat Disasters, 274. Steamboat, Invention of, 170-173. Steamboat Traffic in the Middle West, 272-276. Stephens, Fort, 191. Steuben, Fort, 116. Stevens, Robert L., 270. Street Cars, The First. 421. Stuy vesant, Peter, Surrender of, 37. Stockton, Commodore, 330, 331. "Stourbridge Lion," The, 275. Stuart, Dr. David, 177. Sugar, Maple, 154. Surveys, SJ^stem of Land, 105. Survival of the Fittest, 10. Sutter, John Augustus, 327, 345. Sutter's Fort, 327, 337. Sutter's Mill, 335-337. Swedes Settle in North America, 39. Swimmer, William, and the Spanish, 189, "Sylvania/J' Phalanx, 398, 399. Symmes City, 125. Symmes, John Cleves, 119, 124, 125. Symmes Purchase, The, 112, 159. Taylor, Zachariah, 299, 330. Telegraph across Bering Strait, 430. Telegraph, Magnetic, Invention of the, 297-299, 365, 371. Tennessee, Beginnings of, 87- 100. Terre Haute, Indiana, 227. Texas, Annexation of, 301, 310- 321. Thayer, EH, 357. Thirty Years' War, Results of, 41. Thoreau, Henry, 295. Tiffin. Edward, 192. Toll Gates, 257. Tombigbee River, 191. Toscanelli, Map of, 25. Toussaint, L'Ouvertiure, 195. Township System of Land Sur- veys, 106. Trade, Influence of, on Expan- sion, 14. Travel in the Colonies,-_56. Tran-sc'end^ntalism, 295, 395-397. Transcontinental Railway, 366. Transportation and Unionism, 257. Transportation, Improve ment in 421. Transvlvania, The State of, 98. Trollope, Mrs., 293. "Truce of God," 18. Turner, Prof. Frederick, Quoted, 238. Turnpikes, 258. Tupper, Benjamin, and tlie Ohio Company, 109. Turkey, The Partition of, 448. Turks Block the Way to the East, 21. Tyler, John, 307. INDEX 461 "Underground Railroad," 356. Union and the States, 86. Union Pacific Railroad, 368-372. Union through Communication, 257. Unitarianism, 295, 395. Upper California, 323-335. Utali, Mormon Occupation of, 413, 414. Utopia, Seeking, in America, 376-401. Utrecht, Treaty of, 302. Vancouver Island, 308, 338. Vevay, Indiana, 247. Vincennes, Indiana, 97, 133, 210, 226, 227. Virginia Militaiy District, 114, 125, 126. "Virginius," The, 440. Wabash Canal, The, 268. Wabash River, 227. Wakarusa, Kansas, 357, 360. Waldenses in America, 45. "Walk-in-the- Water," The, 273. Walloons in America, 45. War of 1812, Lack of Roads in, 253. War Threatened over Oregon, 308. Washington City, Early Appear- ance of, 184. Washington City, Plan of, 179. Washington County, Ohio, Formed, 122. Washington, Fort, 116, 125. Washington, George, 75, 89, 146, 165, 168, 170, 175, 180. Wayne's Treaty, 135. Webster, Daniel, 306. Webster, Pelatiah, Quoted, 246. Weddings, Pioneer, 157. Well-Being, Increase of, 419- 428. Welsh in America, 46. Western Reserve College, 160. Western Reserve, Connecticut, 114, 128. Western Trend of Expansion, 14. West Florida, 106, 198, 216. Westport and the Oregon Trail, 307. Wheeling, 116, 136. Whipple, Commodore, 145, 271. Whitefield, Preaching of, 50. Whitman, Rev. Marcus, 305- 307. Whitney, Asa, 366, 368. Whitney, Eli, 173. "Wild-Cat*" Banks, 284. Wilderness Road, The, 97. Wilkinson, Gen. James, 190, 205, 207. Wilkinson, Jemima, 378. Whittier, John G., 358, 361, 407. Woman's Rights Reform, 409, 410. Wright, Fanny, 391, 392, 410. Yale University, 161. Yerba Buena, 324. Young, Brigham, 413-416. Zane's Trace, 116, 251. Zinzendorf, Count, 381. Zion, The Mormon City of, 413. Zoar, Ohio, 384-386. ■J'j!